Happy ending
by pcworth
Summary: An Emma from the future comes back to find out the current Emma messed up her happy ending.
1. Chapter 1

NOTE: This is my submission for day 8 of Swan Queen Week on tumblr. I decided to sort of mix two of the prompts from the Creator's Choice theme. I chose time travel and surprise twin. And despite my promise to myself that I wouldn't start another fiction until I finished off a couple of my current ones, I started having too much fun with this one.

* * *

Emma walked up the stairs to the room she and Henry had been renting from Granny since returning to Storybrooke. She knew they would need to look for more permanent accommodations but she really couldn't think about such things right now.

Henry was spending the night at Regina's, and Emma hoped that they went well for both of them. It had been a week since Emma had brought Marian back and a week since Regina had been seen outside of her home. Emma had tried to go talk to her but the magical barrier she had erected around the place had kept that from happening. From what she could tell only three people had made it inside – Robin, Tink and Henry. She could only guess at what Regina and Robin spoke out. Robin too had been scarce this week, but Marian was with him from what she understood.

It's not like she intentionally set out to hurt Regina, but Regina seemed to think that way and all Henry knew really was that his mother was upset and it was his mom's fault.

She unlocked the door and went in, feeling around for the light switch. Once she flipped it on, she felt something hit her hard in the head and she went down.

…

Emma blinked several times as she woke on the couch.

"Sorry about hitting you so hard," a woman's voice said and Emma turned in that direction, her eyes going wide. "Actually you know what; I'm not sorry. I don't know what the hell you did to my life, but you are sure as hell going make it right."

Emma blinked again, to no. 1 make sure she was actually awake, and no. 2 to make sure she was in fact seeing herself standing there against the wall staring back at her.

"Who are you?"

The other Emma sighed, "really? Somehow I don't remember being this dumb. I am you. Future you."

"That isn't possible," Emma said standing up to quickly and feeling dizzy from the blow to the head that she sat back down. She had to admit the other woman did look like a slightly older version of her. Although clearly an unhappy older version of her.

"You are the daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming and you think this is impossible. You are the reason I am here, so we need to figure out what you did."

Emma did not like how "she" was talking to her and if she could get her head to clear the other her would be lucky if she didn't cold cock her. "How did I bring you here?"

"You didn't, not directly. I brought me here, well I had help in casting the spell, but once I realize someone messed with my past to screw up my life I had the spell bring me to the place and time where things went wrong. It brought me here to you."

"That doesn't make any sense. I haven't done anything to screw up my life. If anything my life is going pretty ok right now."

"The spell would suggest otherwise, but what do you mean by your life is pretty ok right now?"

"You know, it's ok. I am happy and we just got done defeating Zelena and it's ok."

"You mean Regina just got done defeating Zelena."

"Yeah, I mean we were there assisting her."

"You say your life is ok, define ok."

"I don't know. It's ok. Um my parents just got done giving birth to my baby brother."

"Neal?"

"Yes."

"That is the same in my time line. Go on."

"I decided to stay here in Storybrooke to be close to my parents instead of going back to New York."

"Yes."

"Henry has his memories back."

"Yes."

"I just started dating Killian."

"You what!"

…

Emma watched as older version of went straight to the kitchen area and began looking in cupboards, finally finding a bottle of whiskey Emma had stashed there, poured herself some and drank it down. The woman currently had her second glass in her hand as she was pacing back and forth muttering various things that were said too low for Emma to hear. Although she did catch a couple of idiots being thrown her way.

Finally she stopped. "Ok, the first thing you are going to do is pick up the phone, call the pirate and tell him it's over and you never want to see him again."

"I will do no such thing. Look I don't know who you think you are, but you aren't going to come storming in here and telling me how to run my life."

"It's my life too and whatever you have done, whatever possessed you to start dating Hook, that has to be the problem here. Please God tell me you haven't slept with him."

"That isn't any of your business."

"Pick up the phone and call him."

Emma stood this time. "I will not. I like Killian. I want to see where this goes."

"Oh, you want to know where this goes, let me tell you where it goes. Up until about a week ago my life was great. Then I wake up in a shitty, one-bedroom apartment in Boston that has a fridge with more condiments in it then actual food. The only food is half-eaten Chinese food in cartons that look like a disease culture is growing in them. There are empty liquor bottles in about every trash receptacle in the place," she said. "I thought I had been kidnapped from here and taken there for some reason until I started looking around and I find mail with my name on it. My clothes in the closet including my red jacket that I can never seem to throw away. I find my phone and there are only a couple of numbers in it that I recognize – my parents and Henry. I call my son and start to explain to him what is going on, and you know what he does? He hangs up on me but not before saying next time try calling when I am sober. That is there that goes."

"I don't believe you. How can me dating Killian have that much of an affect on my life?"

"Because dating Killian keeps you from who you are supposed to be with. Damn it Emma, we finally got our happy ending. I was happy, extremely happy and now that is all gone and I am not going to let that happen. So start from the beginning and tell me what led you to date Killian."

"Wait, you said you woke up in that apartment about a week ago."

"Yes, why?"

"Shit," Emma said sitting back down.

…

"Let me get this straight," older Emma said once again pacing. "You and the pirate went through the time portal. You almost manage to keep your parents from ever meeting, thus endangering the chances of you being born. You try to fix this and in the course of doing so you bring back Robin Hood's long dead wife Marian to this time. Robin is now with Marian and Regina is locked away in her mansion where Henry is with her now. And you start dating Hook because he gave up a stupid ship, is that about right?"

"Um more or less."

"Wow, when you screw up you go for the big time, don't you?"

"You know I am getting more than a little tired of how you are speaking to me."

"Forgive me for not being polite, but my entire life got stolen from me because of what you did here."

"And what is so special about your life?"

"For one, I am married, and have been happily so for the past four years. In addition to Henry, I now have a two-year-old daughter Alexandra, who I usually just call Alex. Henry loves being a big brother and loves that he is the big nephew to his uncle Neal. My relationship with my parents has never been better and I am still sheriff in this town."

"Married? I am married."

"Yes, happily, blissfully married. Like I said we finally got our happy ending. And I want it back, which means you need to fix things here."

"Who am I married to?"

"Regina, of course."


	2. Chapter 2

"Regina? What the fuck? This is a joke, right?" Emma said.

"No this isn't a joke. Regina is my wife," older Emma said. "And I fully intend to fix this whether you are on board with it or not, or do you really relish the idea of living in a shit hole apartment drinking your brains out?"

"This can't be happening," Emma said getting up and pacing. She walked over to where the whiskey bottle was and poured herself a double. "I must be dreaming; or still unconscious because this isn't happening."

Future Emma sat down and watched as her younger self went on a little rant of her own. She hated to admit it, but maybe her wife was right when she said she should learn not blurt out the first thing that popped into her head. She kept watching until Emma went to pour another drink, so she got up and stopped her. "Perhaps we shouldn't engage in dangerous habits," she said.

"Easy for you to say. I just found out I apparently get married to Regina "the Evil Queen" Mills."

"Don't call her that," future Emma said with force. "Don't you ever call her that."

Younger Emma saw the anger in her own eyes. "Ok, fine. I don't see her like that anyway," Emma backed off. "But you have to admit this is a lot to take in. I mean me and Regina, it's … it's not even possible. Are you sure you weren't under some sort of spell when you married her?"

Again her older self looked at her in anger.

"Why is this so hard for you to accept?" future Emma said. "I know for a fact you, me, whatever, thought she was hot from the moment we met her."

"Thinking someone is hot and actually becoming involved with that person is two completely different things."

"You are being stubborn. No wonder you screwed this whole thing up, seeing as you took my catalyst away."

"What does that even mean?"

"Robin. In my timeline, Regina and Robin started to date and I don't know I guess it was getting pseudo-serious, although what she saw in him romantically I still don't understand. He spends more time in the forest than he does in civilization, and let me tell you to this day he smells like a forest. I mean Roland is as cute as can be, but ugh just the idea that Robin kissed her, touched her …"

"Oh God, you were jealous," Emma said.

"I don't know if jealous is the right word. It's not like Robin was that much of a competition once I turned my charm on, but yes, it was them dating that finally got me off my ass to ask her out."

"And she said yes, just like that? Despite all the latent hostility between us, she just ups and decides to say yes because you asked her out?"

"No, not exactly. It may have taken a few times before she actually agreed to go out with me."

"How many is a few times?"

"Seven. Eight if you count the time I asked her in a text message, but I don't really think that counts."

"Eight times? Great. Tell me, in this future of mine, am I as whipped as you seem to be?"

"Cute. Really, but let's get back to the problem at hand. You need to clean up your mess, which means you need to start by sending the pirate boy on his merry way. Then you need to go see Regina."

Emma went and sat back down considering all of this. She wasn't just going to accept what this woman – even if it was her future self – as the gospel until she thought it through completely. Finally she stood up. "You are welcome to sleep on the couch if you want," she said. "It's probably best if you don't go out as it will only cause confusion. I am going to bed."

"That's it?" older Emma said. "Maybe I am not making the sense of urgency clear to you."

"No, you are. But here is the problem, while you may love your wife. I don't love Regina, and maybe this happened for a reason – the reason being to keep you from marrying her. I don't know. What I do know is that I am not breaking up with Killian, and while I will try to make amends with Regina, I am not going to pursue her romantically," Emma said. "It may be your life; it's not mine."

Future Emma could only watch as her younger self went to her room. "Damn you Emma," she said. "You have to do things the hard way. Fine. But know this; I am going to get my life back."

…

Emma woke the next morning and came out of the bedroom to an empty room. There was no one there and it didn't appear as if anyone had stayed on the couch. She laughed out loud – a dream. She had the weirdest, most real seeming dream.

"Married to Regina, yeah right," she said going to the fridge and pulling out the carton of milk to drink from. She was drinking some down when she spit it out, nearly choking. She put the carton the counter and pulled the note down that was hanging from her freezer.

"You might want to stay inside today. You are right; it won't do to have two of us running around town. It will only cause confusion. Besides, I have your sheriff's cruiser and your keys. I am going to see my wife." It was signed me.

Emma crumpled up the note and threw it. "Bitch," she swore heading back to the bedroom to change clothes.

…

She pulled her bug up behind the sheriff's cruiser and got out. She went around to the passenger side door and tapped on the window. She heard the door unlock and she opened it and got in.

"You stole my car."

"Technically, it's my car too; so no I didn't," older Emma said.

"What are you doing out here?" Emma said. They were parked just down from Regina's mansion.

"I am trying to think of a good way to approach her. Clearly I need to apologize for the whole Marian thing."

"And how do you plan on getting in there? There is a barrier around the place remember?"

"Please. Regina did the same thing on the night before our wedding because she was afraid I would sneak in and see her in her dress beforehand. The barrier didn't work then; it's not going to work now."

"Look I get it, really I do. You love her. But have you considered that this isn't even the right timeline for you to fix as it were. I mean how do you know you aren't supposed to be bothering some other version of us, I mean me? How do you know the spell you cast to come back here didn't take you to the wrong place?"

Future Emma turned to her, "I'm in the right place. What I can't figure out is why you are so adamant against this. Have things gotten that serious between you and Killian?"

"No, we haven't been together that long. All I am saying is, I nearly screwed up my parents meeting in the past, and yes I saved Marian from death by bringing her here, but how do you know that this isn't the way the timeline is supposed to be?"

"I've spent nearly a week in the future of this timeline, and I am telling you right now, it's not how you want to end up."

"I admit that being drunk and in Boston isn't that great of an option, but now that I know about that I can actively prevent it from happening."

"It's slightly more complicated than that," future Emma said.

"Did you come back to Storybrooke in that week?"

"Of course I did. Right after Henry hung up on me, I packed a bag and drove the bug straight here."

"And what happened when you did? Did you see Henry? Did he give you any idea of how you ended up in Boston?"

"Henry didn't want to see me. In that timeline, he and I no longer have a relationship."

Younger Emma looked out her window. Now that Henry was in her life, she couldn't imagine circumstances where he wouldn't be there in it.

"Why don't you have a relationship with him?"

Future Emma looked at her and then back at the mansion. "Because he hates me. He hates me for killing his mother."


	3. Chapter 3

Emma was about to ask her older self what she meant by saying she had killed Regina when the other woman suddenly got out of the cruiser.

"What are you ..." But she saw Regina had stepped out of her home and she ducked down in order to not be seen. She peeked up a little as she heard the other Emma call out Regina's name. She watched as Emma approached the barrier, put her hand against it and then walk through it. Regina who had been getting ready to go back inside stopped when she saw this happen.

Regina crossed her arms in front of her - a move Emma found all too familiar. She wished she could hear the conversation or at least read lips as the two women conversed.

Regina had not yet tried to set Emma aflame so she was going to take it as a good thing. Could these two, well her and Regina, really be married, Emma wondered. It didn't seem at all possible to her. Yes she found Regina to be attractive but that didn't mean she was attracted to her in the kind of way that led to matrimony.

The talk didn't last much longer and Emma stayed ducked down until her duplicate got into the car.

"I know it's only been a week, but do you have idea how hard that was to not just grab her and kiss her?"

"No I don't. What did you say to her?"

"I asked her how she was doing to start which only started her off on some blah, blah I don't care speech. Tip for the future when she does this you have two choices, either let her go until she stops or kiss her to make her stop. Never interrupt her."

"I'll keep that in mind. She didn't try and assault you so I take it she accepted your apology?"

"Hell no. She is completely pissed off at you. This is going to require a little more thought on my part. I would know how to deal with this if I was in my time. It's not the first time Regina has been upset, although never to this magnitude, and at least in my time we are together so she would be more willing to listen to me. I kept it short and simple until I can think it through."

"How long do you plan on sticking around here because we need to lay down some ground rules? You can't just go out as me and start talking to people I know."

"I know them too,"

"I'm just saying people will think you are me. You could ruin things for me."

"Kind of like you ruined them for me?"

"I'm sorry that things went bad for you, really I am, but you had to have made a mistake. This isn't the right time line for you to be in. I will help you get to the right one if I can but this can't be it. Regina and I ... it just isn't possible."

"What was your first impression of Regina?"

She was caught off guard by the question. "Um, I don't know. I had just driven Henry here and he was saying all this stuff, and I don't know I guess she came running out to hug him. She was worried. And I thought she's a mom. She had adopted the son I had given up and in that moment I believed she loved him, despite Henry's less than friendly greeting to her. I made her nervous, of course, being Henry's birth mom and all, but I really had no intention of sticking around or interfering until she tried to run me out of town. After that I was suspicious as hell of her."

"Understandably so, but even at this point, you have to see that she has changed."

"She has, I won't deny that."

"Then why do you find it so hard to believe that you can change too, that you can look at her and feel nothing but love?

"What did you mean by saying Henry hates you because you killed his mother?" she asked to change the subject.

"That is probably not a conversation for us to have while sitting here."

They ended up returning to Emma's place, trying to be discreet about it, which wasn't easy. Emma realized she needed to get future Emma out of there before she screwed up something major. Not only did she have a hard time reconciling the idea that she and Regina could be together, but this version of her also bothered her. This other Emma was practically being hostile toward her and didn't seem to be at all receptive to the idea that she may have made a mistake in coming there. Older Emma was going to find out that younger Emma could be just a hostile when shoved into a corner.

Once they got in the apartment Emma turned to her older self, "I want to know what you know about why Henry is upset with me, you, us this future time line and what is this shit about Regina being dead?"

The two women took seats as far apart from each other as possible in the main room. "Like I said I rushed back here from Boston as soon as Henry hung up on me and I went straight to what should have been my home with Regina – the mansion. I get there and the place is deserted. What furniture is left inside is all covered up; there were broken windows and some vandalism. My heart was racing trying to figure out what happened and if Regina was ok, and where she and Henry were. I tried calling Henry again, but he didn't answer."

"I wasn't sure what to do so I headed to my parent's place. They were surprised to see me. Apparently, they try and call often and I often don't answer. I asked them where Henry was and they said he was with Robin."

"Robin? As in Robin Hood?"

"We don't know any other Robins. Apparently Henry is one of his merry men or whatever."

"That makes absolutely no sense whatsoever."

"I know, but when I asked where Regina was my parents looked like they were ready to put in a mental hospital. Mom was all like, 'you know where Regina is' and 'you have to let this go, you weren't responsible,' and I yelled at her to tell me where Regina was. They just got silent and my dad ended up taking me from the house to go for drive so I could calm down. We get in the car and he immediately starts lecturing me about not talking to Snow like that and not yelling in front of Neal and how I need to stop drinking. I looked at him and asked to please just take me to see Regina. He says fine and keeps driving and the next thing I know he is pulling into the cemetery. I ask him what we are doing here and he says, 'you wanted to see Regina.' I followed him back to the mausoleum and inside there it was – a small plaque with Regina's name on it."

"I said, 'how?" and he didn't answer and I just lost it. I was on my knees, sobbing, seeing her name etched into the bronze and I felt like my heart was being squeezed out of my chest. This was my wife. The day before I woke up next to her in our bed and I kissed her good morning and the next day I am waking in Boston and I didn't understand what was going on. I still had my memories of being with her, being with our family but for everyone else this new time was their reality."

"How did she die?"

Emma turned away, as if the idea of speaking about it would bring the hurt back. Young Emma had heard the pain in her counterpart's voice as she described going to the cemetery.

"I finally got it out of him, how it happened. He thought I was crazy for asking, and I can understand why after all I supposedly lived through it."

She paused again.

"Sometime after Zelena, while you must have been dating Hook," she said getting a dig in. "Regina and Henry were in a car crash. A deer ran out in front of them and Regina swerved and the car spun. Regina was ok, but Henry was banged up – concussion, broken arm. You and Regina got into it at the hospital and the next day when the court was open you petitioned the court to be granted full custody of Henry."

"It was contentious between you and Regina after that with Henry stuck in the middle. Regina tried to get the petition thrown out and then tried to get it moved to a court outside of Storybrooke, both of which failed. It was essentially a character hearing. You, the Savior, the daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming versus the Evil Queen. And there was no shortage of people willing to take the stand to say you were the more fit parent. And there was no shortage of people willing to take the stand with their opinion of Regina. It wasn't really a custody hearing. You put the Evil Queen on trial for everyone to condemn her, and condemn her they did."

"She um lost of course and you legally had Henry at this point and Regina had nothing. You took the one thing away from her that she cared the most for in this world like it meant nothing to you."

"Would you stop saying this like I personally did it," Emma interjected. "I didn't do it, I wouldn't."

"I didn't do it, so it had to be you. Don't act like it isn't within the realm of possibility for you. I am you. I remember what it was like when we first came back here to Storybrooke from New York. We came back only to help out with our parents and then we were ready to go back home with Henry. It didn't matter to us that Regina was also his mother, or that he had life here. We weren't thinking about him or anyone else. We thought we knew best and we wanted to get the hell out of here, get back to living a normal life."

Emma opened her mouth to argue, but she couldn't. She couldn't because she knew it was true.

"So what happened? Did Regina go all Evil Queen on the town and I had to stop her and killed her?"

Future Emma shook her head. "You know maybe I am in the wrong time line because I don't recall being this so close-minded about Regina. I remember referring her to as Regina or Madame Mayor, not as the Evil Queen."

"Just tell me how Regina died."

"After she was left with nothing. I'm not sure how much time went by, but Henry snuck away one day to go to the mansion to see her because he hadn't heard from her and you wouldn't let him see her. He found her body in his room. No one even knew she had a gun."

"No," Emma said. "What you are saying is impossible. For all her faults, Regina is like the strongest person I know, she would never …"

"She did. And Henry blamed you. He filed with the court for emancipation and you didn't fight it. Once it was granted you left Storybrooke for good."

"Stop saying I did these things," Emma said getting upset. The idea that Regina would commit suicide, that Henry wanted nothing to do with her; the whole thing was beginning to feel overwhelming. "I didn't do it. I won't do it. Now that I know, I won't contest her custody of him."

"That's not good enough. I want my life back, whether you agree with it or not. That is why I am here. I am not here to make you feel bad about your life choices, although it's not hard to do. I am here for one purpose and that is to get my family back. Now you can get on board with it or not, I don't really care, but you aren't going to stop me."


	4. Chapter 4

Emma didn't appreciate her older self essentially threatening her and her life, but she was beginning to see the other woman was upset and running on pure emotion. She knew what that was like and she also knew it tended to result in rash decisions and snap judgments. She couldn't afford any of those.

She needed to get her to calm down, and she briefly wondered how Regina would have gotten her to calm down. Then she realized, unfortunately for her, she there was only one way to do that.

"How did you finally get Regina to agree to go out with you after she kept turning you down?"

Emma saw her future self immediately seem to brighten at the thought of it.

"We were at this school function, a festival of the arts or something like that. All the students had their art work on display, the choir performed, and there was this school play as well. Henry was helping with the play – behind the scenes stuff. When I got there Regina was already seated and I asked her if the seat next to her was taken. It wasn't so I sat down."

"She didn't say anything, just kept her eyes straight ahead. By this time, it was certainly clear that I wanted her to give me a chance. She seemed to be purposely keeping her eyes to the front so she didn't have to look at me or interact with me. The play started soon after because I of course showed up at the last minute. I would have given anything for Regina to have made a snarky remark about it in that moment."

"I should back up," future Emma said taking a seat. "The last time I had asked her out didn't go so well. I had dropped Henry off at her place for the weekend, and I sort of invited myself in. Henry went upstairs and I followed Regina into the kitchen."

_"I thought you said you needed to use the restroom," Regina said. "It's down that hall, not here."_

_"We both know I didn't come in to use the restroom."_

_"Then what do you want?" Regina said. _

_"I think I've made that clear. I want a date, just one chance."_

_"I've already turned you down six times already. Even you should understand that means I am not interested."_

_"And normally I would have given up by now, but I know you like the attention I am giving you."_

_Regina turned toward the sink, "and what would give you an idea like that?"_

_"Your smile."_

_Regina was glad she was turned away from Emma as she smiled. _

_"Is the idea of going out with me that unappealing?"_

_Regina turned back to her. "Have you forgotten that I am dating Robin?"_

_"I haven't forgotten," Emma responded, moving closer to her. "But what you have with him isn't exclusive yet, is it?"_

_"We haven't really talked about it."_

_"Do you want it to be exclusive?" Emma said moving into even closer so Regina backed up against the sink. "Or do you want to give someone else a chance?"_

_Emma leaned in and kissed her. Regina pulled away immediately. "Miss Swan, maintain your distance."_

_"Fine," Emma said backing off. "Just giving you a preview."_

_"I haven't agreed to go on a date with you yet, and believe me if you keep this cocky attitude up, I won't."_

_"Come on Regina. One date. That is all I am asking for."_

_"I will consider it."_

_"You either do or you don't want to go out with me. There really isn't anything to consider. I get that you are enjoying torturing me with this waiting game, but enough is enough. You aren't the queen in this world, so stop acting like it."_

"Needless to say that prompted fight that got me kicked out of the house," future Emma told her younger self. "So there I was sitting at this school play with her and she is ignoring me. I was beginning to feel stupid for even sitting beside her. The play finally ends and Regina doesn't get up and I don't get up and then she turns to me and says, 'ask me again.' And I am like what and she repeats herself. I say, 'will you go out on a date with me?' She said yes."

"After that well, a few dates in and she tells Robin she can't see him anymore and she and I, we just started building a life together."

Emma could tell her counterpart was in love. The way she told the story, the way she would smile at different parts of it, or the way she just really enjoyed talking about Regina – it all pointed to her being in love.


	5. Chapter 5

Emma's phone rang and she glanced down at it – Killian was calling. "I need to take this," she said heading to her bedroom. Future Emma waited until the door closed and then snuck up to it. She knew she shouldn't be spying on her younger self, but she also didn't trust her yet. She knew she should – she was her after all, but at the same time she wasn't her. She remembered coming home from the Enchanted Forest with Hook, who frankly annoyed her, especially when he suggested she ruined his rescue of her by rescuing herself.

Then she saw Regina and Robin at Granny's and it bothered her, but she couldn't really say immediately why. She went home thinking about it, and again the next day she was thinking about it. She kept thinking how wrong he was for her. The main thing that kept coming to mind was that Robin didn't challenge Regina – not like she could.

She leaned toward the door and could just barely make out Emma saying, "No, I'll meet you at your boat, but I can't stay long because I have to pick up Henry after dinner." Emma moved quickly from the door, not wanting to get caught spying.

A few moments later Emma emerged. "That was the station. I am needed. Can I trust you to stay here and not go out?"

"I'm you, if you can't trust me who can you trust?"

"Yeah, just stay here please."

"Ok."

Emma grabbed her jacket and left. As the door closed Emma picked up the first thing she could get her hands on – a framed picture – and had to force herself not to fling it against the wall. Getting angry never solved problems she could hear Regina's voice in her ear. How many times had Regina said that to her? Regina, the woman who made acting emotionally out of anger famous, had over the years become a calming influence on Emma. She tried to channel that calmness now and failed miserably.

Obviously this Emma had no intention of breaking things off with Hook, or else why would she lie about where she was going.

"That's fine," Emma said out loud. "I miss my wife. There is no reason not to go see her again."

…

Emma smiled as Henry answered the door at the mansion. "Hey kid," she said momentarily forgetting that he was younger here and not as tall. He had gained several inches of height and was now taller than both of his moms. Henry looked at her oddly for a moment, similar to Regina this morning. She looked like her younger self as long they weren't standing side by side for a comparison she could pass as her.

"Are you going to invite me in?"

"I don't know if I should," Henry said glancing back into the house.

"It'll be fine," she said slipping in past him. "Where's your mother?"

"She's in her home office."

"Thanks," she said taking a moment to rub his hair – something she couldn't easily do in her time because of his height. She headed back to the office and once there she debated whether to knock or not. Regina didn't care for unscheduled interruptions and the way she felt about her right now would only increase her anger. Emma figured her best chance at not getting immediately kicked out was to not knock.

"Miss Swan!" Regina said standing as she entered the room. "How dare you intrude upon my house."

"Sorry," Emma said raising her hand up in surrender. "Really, truly, I wouldn't have intruded if it wasn't important."

"How did you get through the barrier again?"

"Oh that, that is nothing. You're a very good magical teacher is all. Really you can take it down. I assume you put it up to keep me out, so it doesn't really serve a purpose anymore. Unless you are trying to keep others out, in that case you can call the sheriff – that's me – and I will come and take care of it," she said ending up at Regina's desk where she took a seat in one of the two chairs facing it.

Regina looked at her in confusion a moment before hardening her features. "Miss Swan, what are you doing here?"

"I came to see you."

"About what?" Regina asked crossing her arms.

"Look," Emma said leaning forward. "I know this is going to seem like it's coming out of left field or whatever, and I get it if your first instinct is to say no, but just hear me out, ok?"

"You have one minute."

"One minute, I can do one minute. The thing is, I am sorry about the whole Marian thing. I know I said it this morning and you weren't that receptive to it at the time, but I am truly sorry. I can't say I am sorry for saving her life, but I am sorry for it's affect on you. I know you probably don't believe that right now, but I hope in time – a short amount of time you will."

"Is that all?"

"No. You see I need you to forgive me, or at least not hold an ever lasting grudge against me for my stupidity. You may think I don't get it, but I do. I understand why you locked yourself in here behind that barrier."

"You couldn't begin to understand …"

"Daniel. You're thinking about how my mom's actions led to his death and you are thinking about all the things that happened afterward, all the hurt, and how you reacted to that hurt. But you aren't the same person you were before. You're a mom and you have Henry and you aren't going to go all Evil Queen on anyone but you don't know how to have an outlet for that anger and heartache you must be filling right now. I get it. I screwed up and you're angry at me so if you feel the need to go all crazy on someone I volunteer."

"And why would you do that?"

Emma was struck suddenly on how much Regina had changed in the time they had been together. The defensive posture she had on display now was something Emma was familiar with from their many times being at odds against each other before they started dated. Now the only time she saw that kind of look from Regina was when she kept Alex up too late playing with her or gave Alex junk food.

Her heart ached a moment at the thought of her wife and daughter. Little Alex with her brunette hair so much like her mother.

"Because I want you to be ok, and I'd like to be a part of you being ok. I care about you Regina. And I know you don't believe that right now and that's ok too. I need to earn that belief. So I am going to get up now and I am going to leave. I am going to go talk with Henry, see if he needs anything and if he does I will pick it up and bring it back here. I think it would be good for you and him to spend a few days together. I was an ass for saying he could just stay the night. It's not my decision, he's your son too. So yeah, I am going to go now. I will see you later and hopefully when we see each other next maybe we can talk about, well whatever you want to talk about."

Emma got up and left the room, smiling at the dumbfounded look on Regina's face. If she knew her wife as well as she thought she did, sometime in the next few minutes she would dismiss the entire encounter as some ploy on her part. Emma hoped she did because that meant not only did she know her wife well, it meant this Regina would still be receptive when Emma came calling next.


	6. Chapter 6

Killian greeted her with a kiss and Emma pulled back almost immediately.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"Nothing," she said. "I um I think I may have cracked a tooth or something. My mouth has been a little sore."

"I will have to kiss softer then," Killian said he placed a light kiss on her lips. "See there, I can be soft."

Emma smiled and they went down into the boat. Emma suddenly felt very nervous and uneasy about this. Killian had his arm around her waist and she moved quickly from the embrace. "Um this situation with Regina, I mean because of Marian, it's been getting complicated," she said. "I should have listened to you about saving her."

"If you had let me save you then maybe none of this would."

"I told you I am not the type of person that needs saving."

Killian sat down. "So what kind of chaos is the Evil Queen embarking upon today?"

"Don't call her that."

"Fine, what has Regina done this time?"

"She hasn't done anything. It's just … look I need to work on fixing this."

"Perhaps the best way to fix it is to put Regina in the cell her sister just vacated."

"Killian, she's Henry's mom."

"I know, I know. But what are you going to do, wait until she casts another curse?"

"She won't do that. I think she just needs some time to process all of this. Henry is with her and she won't do anything with him around."

"Sounds like you think it's all under control then which means you and I can get back to having some alone time."

Emma suddenly wondered if Killian was even capable of listening. It seemed like he heard what he wanted to hear and then dismissed the rest of it. Then she mentally kicked herself for thinking like her future self. She wasn't in love with Regina. She wasn't in love with Killian either, but it didn't mean it wasn't a possibility.

She felt bad suddenly for lying to her older self about where she was going but she knew if she had told the truth it would have ended up in another fight about her future. That is what the older Emma didn't seem to understand, this was present Emma's time and her future was to be determined by her, not from some version of her that may not even be in the right past time line.

"I don't really have time to stay," Emma said.

"You can make a little time," he said motioning for her to come over. She took a breath and reminded herself that it was her choice as she stepped forward.

….

Emma left the boat and checked her phone. There was a voicemail from an unidentified number. She hit play.

"Hey past me," said her counterpart. "I just wanted to let you know that you don't need to go pick up Henry. I stopped by Regina's and told her that Henry could stay with her for a few days. It's not really my call to tell her she can or can't spend time with her son, a lesson you should learn. Plus I figured having Henry at your place would pose problems since I am staying there as well. So when you are done doing whatever it is you do with Hook, I will be there waiting."

Emma nearly threw the phone as far as she could. "I am going to kill her," she said storming toward her car.

…

"What the hell," she said coming into her own apartment. "I ask you to do one thing, stay here in the apartment and you translate that to go and see Regina again. What is wrong with you?"

"Care for a beer?" Emma said holding out a Bud Light.

"No. And I thought you had concerns about my drinking anyway."

"I do, but I figure would be in need of one for this talk."

"There is nothing to talk about. You, you need to go back where you came from."

"That's exactly what I am trying to do."

Emma sat down in frustration but not before taking the offered beer. She took a long drink to collect her thoughts. "You can't be coming and going from here as you like, you do understand that right?"

"I understand that it could cause issues yes. But you do understand I have one purpose here and that is to repair things so I can have my life back, right?"

"I get it, I do," Emma said more than a little annoyed that she was having this conversation with herself – again. "If you are really me, then tell me how would you feel if a future you came back in time and told you that you fucked up and that she was going to take over your life to fix it."

This time it was older Emma's turn to drink. "I would be upset," she said finally. "But I …"

"No, no buts. Let me have this win for a least a minute or two."

"Fine."

They both drank the rest of their beers in silence and grabbed another one. "Does Regina even let you drink beer?" she asked.

"I am not as whipped as you may think me to be. Yes I drink beer. She tried to get me to drink, I'm sorry to appreciate wine because apparently you can't really drink it unless you appreciate it first."

"Sounds like something she would say."

"Yes, well that was a failed experiment that she will never try again. I on the other hand have successfully gotten her to drink a beer on occasion."

"No kidding."

"Yep. She was resistant at first, but she lost a bet and didn't have any choice on drinking the first one. She admitted that it wasn't bad, and so on occasion she will sit down and share some beer with me."

"What bet did she lose?"

"I don't think I should tell you that."

"Afraid to tell me too much about the future because I think we are way past that."

"No that isn't it. I just didn't figure you would appreciate hearing what the bet was given your thoughts about me and Regina."

Emma found she was now oddly curious but wasn't sure she should open that door. "I think I can handle it," she said finally, not wanting her older self to think that she could be made uncomfortable.

"I bet her I could make her cum in three times in an hour."

"Oh," Emma responded taking a drink. Then the thought of could she really do that came into her head and she suddenly did feel uncomfortable.

"I did warn you."

"You did. It's fine. I mean you two are married in your time so it's natural that you know you would um be having sex."

There was a pause.

"Is it good?"

"The sex?" older Emma asked, stunned that she would ask that question.

"Yes. I mean you know is she good?"

"This may sound silly, but do you remember the first woman we slept with?"

Pause. "Jenny Sampson," they both said at the same time exchanging a smile.

"Yes. Well when I, we slept with Jenny we thought that nothing was going to top that. She was more experienced, knew all the right ways to touch and draw out an orgasm. So fast forward to me and Regina, where this time I am the experienced one the first time around. I am telling you I had never been more turned on than in that moment because I knew I was giving her an experience like she had never had before. And ever since then, well it's like a constant game of one upmanship between us."

"Who is currently winning that battle?" Emma said unable to stop herself from asking the question out loud.

"She is. Here is a tip for you. The first time she asks if you like ice cubes, go with it. You will not regret it."

Another pause.

"What are we going to do about all of this?" Emma finally asked. "I know what you want from me, but I am trying to be honest here with you. I don't see it. I mean I see it with you. I see that you love her. But I don't see it for me."

"I know you don't. That is the problem. It really blind-sided me at first but there was just something about seeing her with Robin that made it click into place for me. But that is no longer possible."

"No, it's not. And even if it was, I still don't see it. I really do wish Regina well. I feel bad that she is hurting now because of what happened with Marian. I can admit that that I find her attractive, but the way you talk about Regina, the way you see her, that isn't me. I like Killian. I know you may find that hard to believe, but I do. Does he have his faults? Yes, but we all do, Regina included. I would like to see where this goes with Killian."

Silence.

"I have only one solution that I can think of then," future Emma said.

"Which is?"

"I am not going anywhere. I can't snap my fingers and go back to the future and I wouldn't want to, not with the future that is waiting for me there. We are both here. We both have different ideas of what we want. So the only solution is for you to date to Hook."

"Really?"

"Yes. I won't stand in your way if that is what you want."

"What's the catch?"

"No catch. Date him if you want, because I have every intention of dating Regina."


	7. Chapter 7

Emma rang the doorbell and waited for a few moments before the door was opened.

"Miss Swan, this is three times now in the 24 hours you have showed up at my door unannounced. I'll have to call the sheriff but I am beginning to think is stalking or harassment," Regina said.

She was full dressed in one of her power suit outfits despite the fact it was only just after 8 a.m.

"It's neither of those. It's breakfast," she said holding up a bag. "I brought bagels."

Regina stood there open confusion on her face. "Is this some sort of weird game you are playing, because I am not interested?"

"No game, I swear, just breakfast. Can I come in?"

"No."

"Please,"

"Miss Swan apparently I am not making myself clear to you. I am not interested in bagels or more apologies or anything else from you. I want to leave me alone. Outside of Henry I don't see where we have anything else we ever need to talk about it. I am done with you and your family. The less contact we have the better it will be for all parties involved. Now if you'll excuse me."

She shut the door on Emma, who backed up. Not how she wished things had gone but not entirely surprising either. This wasn't going to be like before, she could see that already. Regina was hurting and when they had gotten together in her timeline that hadn't been the case.

But she had dealt with her wife being hurt before.

She had even had to deal with her being the one who had hurt her.

…

_"I don't know what to do. She won't even talk to me," Emma said as she sat her mother's kitchen table. "It's been three days and she won't acknowledge me. I've tried sending her flowers, chocolates, I apologized and she's acting like … I don't even know what to say about it. The last time she spoke to me all she would say is that I didn't even know what I was apologizing for. What's that even supposed to mean?"_

_"Tell me again what happened," Snow said. "Exactly as you can remember it."_

_"I went out with Ruby, just to blow off some steam. Work had been crazy lately and with the wedding coming up it seems like I haven't gotten a moment to relax. It's not like she didn't know I was going out. I told her before hand I wanted to go out with Ruby and she didn't object then."_

_"Emma, tell me what happened. Don't tell me what you think Regina felt about it."_

_"Why?"_

_Snow sighed. "Regina is upset about something that has to be more than you going out and getting drunk."_

_"No shit, so why doesn't she just tell me what it is so we can move past it. It would be a whole hell of lot easier than this fit she is throwing," Emma said getting upset. She paused to cool down. "I hadn't intended on getting drunk that night. I thought I would have a couple of beers, relax and go home to my fiancée. When we got there, the place was already packed. Looked like I wasn't the only one who needed to let loose for the evening. And there he was Robin Hood."_

_"It's not like he and I had ever talked about what happened with you know, but the few times we had been around each other we have kept our distance. Frankly I never know what to say to him. Ruby and I went to the opposite end of the bar from where he and some of his guys were and the evening started out fine. That was until Ruby started flirting with one of the Merry Men and suddenly there we were in the middle of that group."_

_"Robin started talking to me first – about alcohol and how the stuff back home is stronger than our processed stuff here, although our taste was better. I probably shouldn't have taken that as some sort of challenge but I did, suggesting that he try something a little stronger than beer. He said he would if I did."_

_"So there I am going shot for shot with Robin. I mean let's get real; this had nothing to do with drinking. He was just wanting to one up me because Regina chose me over him, except he is too infuriatingly nice to just say something to my face about it. Did you know Regina and he still talk, and do I say a word no, I don't, why, because I know it won't ever be anything but talk. She isn't interested in him beyond this friendship thing they have going on."_

_"You're getting a little off topic."_

_"Things were going fine. I was drunk, but not like on-the-floor drunk when of course fucking Hook walks in with his little sailor posse."_

_"Language Emma."_

_"Sorry. And can I just say how scary it is that you and Regina have the same inflection when you say that."_

_"Emma."_

_"Right, sorry. So he walks in and sees me. As you know as nice as Regina and Robin are with each other, things have not gone as well with Hook and I. He has pretty well maintained his distance since that time he made the mistake of making one of his crude remarks in front of Regina and she threatened to use her magic to make his dick disappear."_

_"He goes to the bar, comes back to where me and Robin are sitting, sees we have clearly been doing shots and he sits down like someone invited him. I gave Robin a look like let's ignore him. We both take our next shot. Then Hook takes a drink from his whiskey and looks at Robin. He says, 'you know mate lots of people in this town credit you for taming the Evil Queen." Robin, who instantly gets angry, says, 'she didn't need tamed. She's a human being, a good human being, which isn't something everyone who is in here right now can say.'"_

_"Hook gives him that grin that he thinks so irresistible and says, 'perhaps not mate. I'm just saying what people have said. Course, your dalliance with her majesty didn't last long after she and Emma decided to turn lesbian.' I told him that was enough and Robin took it a step further and told him to leave. Both of us were on our feet at that time and Hook got to his feet and said, 'maybe the queen will change her mind mate. Rumor has it that back in the kingdom she had no shortage of men willing to satisfy her. But this one, well that drink is the closest she will get to a stiff one.'"_

_"I kicked him in the balls and Robin punched him out. His crew carried him away and Robin and I got back to drinking. We actually had a really good time and then I ended up crashing at Ruby's place because I was so drunk. The next day when I sober up I go home and apparently by that time - because it was the afternoon by that point – Regina heard what happened."_

_"And did you tell her exactly what you told me?"_

_"Yes. She starts to get that disapproving look on her face so before she can say anything, I said, 'look I was behaving myself until Hook got there, and when he wouldn't shut up I dealt with it. I was defending you. I would do it again and again. If someone is going to talk shit about you whether it be Hook, or Blue or if your mom decided to come back from the dead, I would defend you in a heartbeat because I love you and that is what you do when you love someone – you protect them."_

_"And then she just got angry. She asked if I thought that is how it works, that love equals protection and I said of course you protect the ones you love and how could I look you in the eye and say I love you if I wasn't willing to throw myself on a grenade if it meant protecting you. And she said life doesn't always allow for those we love to protect us and I said I know but trying has to account for something too and if she expected me to sit on the sidelines then she didn't know me very well. If I was willing to sit on the sidelines I didn't have the right to say I love you. And she just stormed off and has been ignoring me ever since. So you tell me, what did I do wrong?"_

_"Oh Emma," Snow said shaking her head. "She's not upset about you getting drunk and assaulting Hook."_

_"Then what is she upset about?"_

_"She's upset about what you said about protecting people you love."_

_"What? Why? It's true. You love someone you protect them from being hurt."_

_"It has nothing to do with your love for Regina, or her love for you. She's upset because you essentially just questioned her father's love for her."_

_"No I didn't. Her father didn't even come up in the conversation."_

_"Emma, you know how it was for Regina growing up with Cora. You probably know more than the rest of us at this point. I can only imagine what Cora put her through. And the entire time her father was alive and was there. He never stopped it from happening."_

_Emma was about to dispute that it had anything to do with it, but then she remembered the look on Regina's face when she had said that life doesn't always allow for those we love to protect us. There was sadness there, not anger, only pure sadness._

_"Shit," Emma said getting to her feet. "Shit, shit, shit. I am such an idiot. I didn't mean … she has to know I didn't mean that about her father."_

_"I am sure she does honey. I imagine she is more upset over the fact you don't realize what you said hurt her in that way."_

_"I have to go," Emma said grabbing her jacket._

…

Whenever she had a problem that she couldn't discuss with Regina, which were few, she had come to rely on her mother's advice. She realized now that she needed that. It was time to go see Snow. She just hoped her mom didn't notice what others hadn't yet – that she was just a few years older than present Emma. Snow was actually a very observant person, but future Emma also knew if she could fool Snow, everyone else in this town should be easy enough.

Present Emma was not in agreement with her about moving forward with this – both of them dating who they wished to date. But she had told her younger self that unless she could come up with another way to restore her life this was how she was going to deal with it whether she liked it or not.

They had agreed for now that they couldn't be seen together or jeopardize each other in anyway. It was why she had to return to the apartment now so Emma could leave. She could always call Snow and have her come over.


	8. Chapter 8

Emma didn't feel comfortable leaving her older self alone in her apartment. She didn't trust the other woman – as ironic as that was.

This latest plan of hers – them each dating who they wanted – was beyond stupid to Emma. How the other her thought that was supposed to work was beyond her. There was no way this didn't end badly. She tried to remind herself that future Emma had clearly undergone a profound loss by losing her wife and her daughter, but she didn't think that meant future Emma had the right to hijack her life.

She wished the other woman would sit down and think logically about this instead of letting her emotions rule her. She knew she had the tendancy to the same but she would hope her older self would be more mature.

The only way she had come up with to fix this was to send that Emma back to the future. But to do so would require magic and there were only two people in two who could manage that – Gold or Regina and neither would good choices. And while she trusted Gold less than she did Regina, she wasn't about to go to her.

That left her only with Gold.

She waited until later in the day, just before Gold was closing up for the day to stop in. She realized she hadn't seen him nor Belle since they got married. She spoke with Belle as she worked on closing up things. She listened as Belle talked about the wedding and she could see how happy Belle was. It reminded her of the way future Emma talked about Regina and she wondered suddenly what their wedding had been like.

She shook off the feeling as Gold approached her.

"What can I do for you sheriff?"

"I was hoping we could talk in private about a personal matter."

"Anything you have to say you can say in front of Belle. We have no secrets."

"Um, that's good and all but it's sort of a secret of mine and sorry Belle but …"

"It's no problem," Belle said giving Gold a kiss on the cheek. "You two talk. I will be at home."

"Now what is the issue because you wouldn't be here if there wasn't an issue?" he said.

"First, is it possible that when I brought Marian back here that it would change things in the future?"

"Possible? Yes. The future is never written in stone. You brought someone here that isn't supposed to exist, so everything she does could have a ripple affect."

"Ok, but hypothetically let's say I brought her back."

"You did bring her back."

"Yes, I know, but let's say me bringing her back did something to the future and that future now isn't um great. But you accept that it isn't great because you believe now that you know it isn't great, you can change it for the better."

"Take it from me, changing the future you see isn't always what you think it is."

"Yeah, I'm beginning to see that. But um let's say that someone from that future came back here to this time because their future is now not what it was because of bringing Marian back. Would there be some way to send that person back to their own time."

Gold looked at her like she had lost her mind.

"This person from the future, they know their future changed?"

"Yes. They know how it was and then when I brought Marian back it all changed, but they still remember their own timeline. So is there a magic way to get them back there where they get what they want, but here in the present we just go on normally as we want."

"Do you watch a lot of late night sci-fi sheriff?"

"No," she said getting frustrated. "Just is there a way to do it?"

"I would be interested in how this person got back here in the first place," he said. "This hypothetical person. We just saw Zelena try and go back in time to change things and that was no simple spell, so how did this person manage it? Knowing that might be the key to getting them back to their time, but I don't see how that time would change from whatever they left. You did bring Marian back so a major change already happened, so that in turn changed the future. Let me ask you this, why do you want this hypothetical person sent back?"

"I'm trying to protect us, this time. How would you like it if the person changed things here and in the future you weren't married to Belle?"

"I wouldn't like that at all and would try to stop this person. Is that the case?"

"What? No. I don't know. I don't know what your future is."

"But I take it you got a glimpse of yours?"

Emma looked around even though she knew they were alone. She nodded yes. "Now I need to know how to stop it from happening."

"What are you trying to stop exactly? The future of this person, or the future you created by bringing Marian here?"

"Both."

"Sorry sheriff. I can't help you."

"What? Why not?"

"Time shouldn't be messed with. But I will tell you this – I would guess if your visitor from the future is here then they aren't here permanently."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean if they got back here through magic, then there is only one rule,"

"Magic comes with a price," Emma said.

"Yes. I wonder what price this person paid to get back here."

…

When Snow got there with baby Neal, Emma hugged her and then took Neal from her. It had been a few years since she got to hold her little brother as a baby. She almost laughed to see him holding a little stuffed dog – something he still had in his possession. It was his prized stuffed animal and the kid through an absolute fit once when Henry suggested it be tossed out.

They took their seats. "You sounded urgent on the phone, is there something wrong?"

"No. I was hoping to get a little advice about Regina."

"Regina?"

"Yes. She is still a little torqued at me for the whole Marian thing and I've tried apologizing a couple of times, but she doesn't seem interested in it."

"It may be a while before she is willing to listen. She's been hurt, and although you didn't intend for it to be like this, it was your actions that caused it. I am not saying you should have let Marian stay there, but you heard Regina – she has to be thinking this is just like Daniel, just like me. Look how long it took for her and I to come to an understanding."

"Did Robin really make her that happy?"

"I haven't seen her that happy since … since she told me about Daniel."

Emma looked away for a moment. "If she could be happy with Robin, she could be happy again with someone else."

"I suppose. What's this all about?"

"I just … I need to find a way to get through to her."

Snow looked at her, studying her and Emma looked down at Neal hoping her mother didn't realize she wasn't exactly her daughter, at least not the daughter of this time.

"Why is important to you?"

"I can't have her hating me," Emma said. "I can't let this happen to another generation of our family. She's Henry's mom and I … I care about her."

Snow exhaled. "I was just a kid when … I don't know that I would have known what to do. But looking at it now –Regina gave into her anger, gave into all the emotions she was feeling. You have to keep her from doing that or it will be like her and I. If you want it to be different, you have to give her a reason not to give into that hate."

"She has Henry with her. She's not going to do anything."

"I am not just talking about her reverting back to what she was like before. She has changed enough now that I don't think that will happen. But there are other consequences to giving into that kind of anger."

"So how do I help her?"

"My advice – she has to know you are truly sorry. Then she has to know that you care. Then she has to know you aren't going go away. Think about it, with the exception of Henry all the people she has cared about in her life are no longer in her life."


	9. Chapter 9

"This is exactly why this little plan of yours won't work," younger Emma was saying. "You can't just invite my mother for a chat, especially about Regina."

Older Emma was getting a headache having the same argument over and over again with her younger self. She had told Emma about her visit with their mom so that way if Snow were to bring it up Emma wouldn't make a fool out of herself by not knowing. But as usual her younger self was turning everything into a selfish rant.

She went to the fridge and got a beer; at least if she had to listen to it she didn't have to be entirely sober.

"Are you even listening to me?"

"I am trying not to," she admitted while taking a drink. "If you have some better idea on how to handle this, I am all ears."

"How about you go back to your own time and stop interfering in mine?"

"We've been over this, even if I wanted to, I can't."

"Yes, and you haven't told me what that means."

"It means I am stuck here, and I will continue to be here unless the timeline resets itself," she said sitting down. "In other words I need to get my wife back."

"How did you get back here exactly? You said you had help in casting the spell."

"Mr. Gold helped me."

"And what did that cost you because in my timeline he isn't exactly into giving away anything."

"Nor in mine."

"So what deal did you make?"

"That is between him and me."

"You see that right there, that is why I don't trust you. I would not make a deal with him. Not after all I have learned about him."

"I was desperate."

_Emma was drunk. Why not, she thought. Everyone expected it of her at this point. She had an open beer bottle in her hand and three more left sitting on the floor of the mausoleum. She was staring at the plaque – staring at Regina's name. It said Regina Mills, but it shouldn't. It should have said Regina Swan-Mills. They had their names hyphenated once they were married. _

_She reached out and let her fingers glide along the metal as she took another drink of her beer._

_"Emma." _

_She turned. "Henry?"_

_He looked at the beer in her hand and on the floor. "If you want to disrespect yourself, go right ahead but could you not disrespect my mom's resting place."_

_Emma looked back at that name. "I loved her," she said, softly._

_"No you didn't," he said. "And you didn't love me enough to leave her alone."_

_"No Henry, you don't understand."_

_"What, what don't I understand. Because I may have been a kid still, but what I remember is my mother crying as you took me away. I remember her yelling that she loved me and you sat there as we drove off like you didn't give a damn. It didn't take me long to realize that it was because you didn't give a damn. Don't insult her memory now by saying you loved her. I wish my last memory of her was her yelling that she loved me, but it isn't. It's of her dead body lying there. Now you get out of here, or I will force you to leave."_

_"This isn't … this is all wrong. This isn't how it is supposed to be," she said, approaching him. "You have to listen to me. Regina and I, we loved each other. We got married, we were a family. You have little sister Alex. This … I don't know what this but it's not right. It's not how it is supposed to be."_

_Henry grabbed her pulled her out of the mausoleum, shoving her through the door and she landed on the ground. He went back in, came out and threw the beer bottles beside her._

_"Don't you ever step foot in there again," he said staring down at her. "Go back to Boston Emma."_

"I've never seen such hatred in Henry or maybe anyone else before – at least not directed at me," Emma said. "I told you I can't go back, it's true, but I also don't want to go back if I have to go back to that. I'd rather die."

"I don't want you to have to go back to that. But please you have to understand that you and I being here in the same timeline, each trying to date who we choose to date, it won't work. You think I don't understand, but I do. I don't want that future anymore than you do, but you have to understand that it might not be possible for you to just make this timeline like yours. What do you think is going to happen if you start to see Regina, assuming you can get that far, and she then she turns around and sees me with Killian?"

Future Emma took another drink as she considered what was said before finally speaking. "I admit that maybe I didn't think through the whole you dating Killian and me dating Regina thing. But that doesn't mean I am going to simply stop trying. What we need to do it come up with some sort of compromise. Hopefully something we can both handle."

"Do you have something in mind?"

"Nope. Don't have clue."

"Comforting."

"Well, you were the one who pointed out the flaws in my plan. What do you got?"

…

Regina sat in her office reviewing some paperwork when her secretary beeped in. "Sheriff Swan to see you."

"Send her in," Regina said rolling her eyes.

"This better be official business," she said, as Emma entered

"It is," Emma said. "We have a problem. The portal opened up again. Something or rather someone came through it."

"Who did you decide to bring back this time, maybe my mother. I am sure she would be great to have over for a family dinner."

"It's not someone from the past."

"Then who is it?"

"It's um a me, an Emma from the future. I have her at my apartment."

"Another you? Just when I thought life couldn't get any worse," Regina said, closing her eyes a moment. "Did this you from the future say what she was doing here?"

"Sort of. She um … she wants to talk to you."

"About what?"

"She wasn't really all that straight-forward actually. She um … she really wants to talk to you though."

"Then why didn't she come here on her own?" Regina asked. She was becoming increasingly suspicious and the conversation just started.

"I didn't think it was a good idea. I mean she is me, sort of and having a me and a me at the same time probably isn't the best idea, as I am sure you would agree."

"I would."

"I know I am the last person you want to see, but as you've pointed out these things usually have consequences and you obviously don't trust me to handle it, so if you can put aside your hatred for me long enough to help me figure this out, I would appreciate it."

Regina considered it a moment.

"You are right, I don't trust you, which means I will at least meet with her and see what it is that she wants to talk to me about."

…

Future Emma was sure this was a horrible idea. Her younger self was sure this was a horrible idea, but they had finally decided the only way to handle this was to let the cat out of the bag – that there were two Emmas in town. The idea was that future Emma would still have limited contact with townspeople except with Regina.

She was now pacing back and forth hoping that her wife would soon show up.

She hadn't been honest with Emma. She could go back to the future without it resetting. In fact, she had limited time being here until she was sent back there. She couldn't allow that to happen without getting the younger Emma on the right path.

She stopped when she heard the key in the door. Emma came in first, followed by a Regina who looked unthrilled to be there.

Regina walked right up to her and then walked around her studying her without saying a word.

"You are the one who was at my door the other morning. You are the one who got through my barrier," Regina said looking at the current Emma. "I was giving you too much credit clearly." She turned back to future Emma. "Well Miss Swan what are you doing here and why did you want to talk to me?"

"She's Miss Swan," Emma said pointing at her younger self. "You can call me Emma."

"Before I lose my patience Miss Swan, what do you want?"

Emma froze. She wasn't used to having her wife look at her with so much hostility. She wanted to go up to her, take her in her arms, kiss her, get her to see the love they shared.

"I um … I came back to prevent a disaster from happening," she said.

"What disaster would that be?"

"Your death."


	10. Chapter 10

Regina picked up Henry at Snow's place and drove home in silence mostly. Her thoughts were on the conversation she had just had with the two Emmas.

"Is everything ok?" Henry asked her.

She looked over at him, thinking about what it would be like for him when she died in the not-so-distant future.

"I'm fine," she said giving him a smile.

"But you and Emma didn't work anything out?"

Emma had taken him to Snow's and had told him that his moms were getting together to try and work out their issues.

"We're trying," she said.

They got home and Regina told Henry she was turning in early. She went upstairs and sat on the edge of the bed. She was going to die. That was inevitable, but having someone saying that it would happen soon was another thing all together.

She thought about what she had been told.

_"My death," Regina said with more than a little skepticism. _

_"Yes," future Emma said. _

_"And when is my death supposed to happen?"_

_"Within a year or so,"_

_"That is really specific."_

_"Would you like to sit down so we can talk about it?" Emma asked, hoping her wife would say yes._

_"I'll stand thank you," she said crossing her arm. "Tell me, if you are from the future how did you get back here?"_

_She had already been told by present Emma that the future version had been less than forthcoming about how she had returned._

_"I used the portal. It's still there in my time. It's useless unless you can activate it with the right magic."_

_"What kind of magic would that be?"_

_"Dark magic,"_

_Regina looked at the younger Emma. "Things must change rather rapidly if the daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming decided to dabble in dark magic."_

_"It wasn't my magic. It was Gold's magic. I made a deal with him in order to get back here to try and prevent this from happening. Look, I would really feel better if you took a seat and stopped looking at me like I am her," she said pointing at her younger counterpart. "I understand that she hurt you with what she did in the past, but my concern is your future."_

_"Let me make something clear," Regina said. "I don't trust her, which means I don't trust you. If anything I may trust you even less. Now tell me how is it that I die?"_

_"You were shot."_

_Regina took a step back. Somehow hearing she would was going to die was less shocking than hearing that she was going to be shot. That seemed like such a mundane way to die. She had been a queen. Queens didn't get shot._

_This time she did take a seat and she was surprised when future Emma took a seat somewhat close to her on the couch._

_"I am sure this is a little overwhelming," future Emma said as she resisted the urge to take Regina's hand. "The whole point of me being back here is to prevent it from happening though."_

_"If my death is within the next year, why are you back here at this moment in time?"_

_"I don't know," she lied. "All I know is I asked it to take me back to where things went wrong and it brought me here. There must be something I can do here to prevent the future tragedy."_

_Regina may not have Emma's internal lie detector but she sensed she wasn't being given the exact truth. One look at the present day Emma was nearly enough go confirm it. She noticed the present Emma seemed to keep her distance from her counterpart and didn't seem at all pleased that she was here. Obviously she had been here a couple of days, and she wondered what exactly future Emma had told the younger version._

_"Who shot me?"_

_The two Emmas had gone back and forth about what to tell Regina. The one thing they could agree on was to not mention the suicide. _

_"I don't know," she lied. "I um I wasn't able to find out who did it in my time. That is why I am here."_

_Regina seemed to think about it._

_"I get that you don't trust me, but all I want is to prevent this from happening," she said, this time taking Regina's hand. She felt the smooth skin of her wife's hand. How many times had she held on to this hand? How many times had she kissed it? And she wouldn't be able to do that again if she didn't succeed here in the past. "I need you to be ok and I will do whatever it takes to ensure that."_

The rest of the conversation went no where. Future Emma wouldn't give specifics, and younger Emma remained silent. Regina finally lost her patience and told them she needed to get home that she would think about it and talk to them later. She asked present Emma to walk her out to her car.

_"I gather that you aren't quite buying this story," Regina said to her. "Why not?"_

_"I don't trust her."_

_Interesting, Regina thought. "Why don't you trust her? She is after all you."_

_"You are the one who says I don't think about the consequences of my actions."_

_"True, but it's something other than that." _

_Emma looked away. One of the things she had been adamant about was that future Emma not tell Regina about their marriage or their relationship. It had set off a big argument, but she got her way after giving up a concession – no sleeping with Killian. _

_"I am not saying that what she is saying is not true, but just her being back here is messing with our timeline isn't it?"_

_"Oh, so now you suddenly care about messing with a timeline. Why do you care all of a sudden? What did she tell you that she didn't tell me up there?"_

_Emma knew she was taking a risk, but she needed Regina to be on her side. "In this future, Henry hates me apparently because of you being dead. So you can listen to her say she cares about what happens to you all you want, but the bottom line is if it weren't for Henry she wouldn't be here. She's trying to get back in his good graces that is all. Believe or not, I don't want you to die either and not just for Henry's sake. I think as long as we have enough information about it we can prevent it and there will be no reason for any large scale interference on her part."_

_"I see," Regina said. "Well like I said, I don't trust her nor you. But we do need to keep her impact here at a minimum."_

_"Maybe you can find a way to send her back home."_

_"Maybe," Regina said thoughtfully. "I will have to give it some thought. In the meantime do what you can to keep her inside. We don't need two of you running around."_

_"Thank you, I've been trying to get her to see that, but she won't listen to me."_

Regina sat on her bed thinking it through. One thing she didn't doubt was that she was indeed dead. Shot to death by someone, but who?

She didn't want Henry to have to go through something like that. Maybe present Emma was right, if they had enough information to prevent it then they could do it without future Emma interfering with the timeline much.

She thought back to Emma taking her hand as they sat on the couch. When she had done so her first instinct was to move her hand, but in an instant it was gone. She didn't know why but she felt the gesture was comforting and felt an absence when she did finally move from it. She couldn't explain why she felt that way, only that she did.

And the way future Emma looked at her was also unsettling. She didn't look at her like how she was used to seeing from Emma. No, this Emma looked at her with a sense of expectation in her eyes like she was hoping or wishing for something that only Regina could deliver. There was sadness there too as whatever it was that Emma was hoping for wasn't delivered.

Still, this Emma looked at her like they weren't adversaries.

The two Emmas were the same yet different, and definitely at odds with each other. She didn't think either one was telling her the entire truth.

There was another purpose for Emma taking her hand, which only provided further proof that each Emma was working toward her own goals. She pulled out the small note Emma had slipped her when taking her hand.

"555-7647. We need to talk in private."

She got out her phone and texted to the number. "When and where?"

Her phone buzzed back almost immediately. "Tonight. Midnight. Home."

She assumed by home, Emma had meant the mansion. She merely texted back ok. Now all she had to do was wait and find out what it was that the future Emma had to say that she didn't want the younger one knowing.


	11. Chapter 11

Regina was pacing in her study, waiting for the doorbell to ring. It was just after midnight and future Emma wasn't there yet.

She was about to lose her patience and call her to find out where she was at when the other woman merely walked into the study.

"How did you get in here?"

"Backdoor key, which is hidden under the fourth landscaping rock in case of emergencies," she said.

"Did Henry tell you that was there?"

"No," Emma said. "I know because in the future you and I are … we are close."

"Close. As in friends?" she asked skeptically.

"Close as in I live here," Emma said.

"That's ridiculous. I would not have you living here. Did you take the place after I died?"

"No. Maybe you should sit."

"I don't want to sit. I want a straight answer from you about what this is all about."

"I told you it's about preventing your death, but it's more complicated than that. You see your death occurred in an alternate timeline, not the one I am originally from. I am here to try and reset the timeline back to my original one, which is a million times better than the alternate one. My younger self has been less than helpful so far reasons I can't begin to fathom. That leads me to you."

"Perhaps you misunderstand the meaning of a straight answer," Regina said, the annoyance clear in her voice.

Emma hated that annoyed tone that her wife had somehow mastered. She only used it when Emma had gone well past Regina's point of patience. Depending on what kind of mood she was in, she either backed down or confronted Regina directly and she wasn't in a good mood.

"How is this for a straight answer then? You and I are married Regina. You and I have been married for four years in my time. But because dumbass younger me brought Marian back to this time it screwed the future timeline up, placing me in the alternate timeline where you are dead and Henry hates me for it. Is that a straight enough answer for you?"

"I think I need to sit down," Regina said sitting on the couch.

Emma felt somewhat bad laying it all out there for her like that, but Regina wasn't the only one who had lost patience. She went and took a seat next to her.

"You are really happy, you know," Emma said. "In our timeline. You are happy, we both are. We're a family."

"You, me and Henry, we are a family?"

"And Alex."

"Who is Alex?"

"Alexandra. She's our daughter," Emma smiled. "She's two and she's a handful. A bit of a hair puller. I wish I had a photo to show you, but I don't. I don't have anything to prove to you that I am telling the truth because it was all taken from me when I woke in the other timeline."

"Is she adopted like Henry?"

Emma smiled again at the fact Regina wasn't questioning her on the veracity of what she was saying. "No. You gave birth to her."

Regina unconsciously touched her stomach. "How is that possible?"

"Artificial insemination," Emma said. "We picked a donor that most matched me, blonde hair, amazing smile and sense of humor. Alex is perfect. You absolutely adore her. You tend to spoil her too, but I try to keep you in check."

Regina stood suddenly and walked to the other side of the room. Emma was afraid that maybe she had told her too much too fast.

"The Emma from this time, you told her this?" Regina asked.

"Yes,"

"Tell me exactly what you told her?"

Regina sat down again, which didn't last long, as Emma relayed what had happened since she had come to this timeline. For the most part she stayed silent throughout the telling of it. Emma couldn't help but watch her wife as she paced back and forth. Her legs were shapely that Emma for a moment got lost in thought thinking of running her hands up and down them.

"What was your original plan exactly?" Regina asked.

"To get current Emma to flirt with you and get you to see we belong with each other."

"And you expected that to happen easily?"

"I don't know. I guess. We've been married for four years, how was I supposed to know that my younger self wouldn't jump at the chance to hit that?"

"Please tell me I don't allow you to be that crude in the future."

"Sometimes, but usually we are naked when I do. I have to say you are taking this surprisingly well."

"It does make an odd bit of sense. I always found her, you attractive. Marriage though. I admit that it a little hard to believe."

"Because you didn't picture yourself ever getting married again."

Regina gave her a curious look. "You admitted that to me not long after we got engaged."

"Did you ask me or did I ask you?"

"Um no, you didn't get all the details. What would be the fun in that?"

"Well it hardly matters if the timeline is messed up."

"It doesn't have to be, that is why I am here."

"I am afraid the Emma of this time has no intention of dating me. I am rather insulted she would choose that lout Hook over me."

"Don't get me started on the pirate. He has been vocal at times about our relationship. He hasn't been able to get over me breaking up with him for you," Emma said. "When Emma told me she was actually dating him, I could have dropped over dead. I really hope she hasn't had sex with him."

"Had you um had sex with him?" Regina asked as her finger circled the rim of the glass which she had been drinking from.

"No! Oh God no. Believe me there were a few times that I came close because you were dating Robin, who by the way you did sleep with in my timeline so no lectures."

"I hadn't gotten the chance to in this timeline thanks to Emma."

"I am sure you aren't missing much," Emma said.

"You really were jealous of him weren't you?"

"Insanely," she admitted. "The shame is Robin is a good guy. I just didn't like him being a good guy to you. And the fact you wouldn't go out with me when I first asked just added to it. To this day, I swear you wanted to go out with me from the get go, you were purposely drawing it out though."

Regina smiled, "I have no comment on something I haven't actually done."

Emma loved seeing that smile. That was the smile she woke up to, the one that could make Alex laugh, the one that she had smiled back to on their wedding day.

"So now what do we do?" Emma said approaching her. She moved in close and took the glass out of Regina's hand, finishing off the bit of whiskey in it and placing it on the desk.

"I don't know," Regina said unable to tear her eyes away from the intense look Emma was giving her.

Emma leaned in and kissed her. She couldn't resist it any longer. She felt Regina's lips move against hers and relished the feel of it. She needed to feel the comfort of her wife's arms around her and she smiled into the kiss as Regina indeed wrapped her arms around her to pull her closer. It had felt like it had been years since she had been able to do this.

Regina pulled back first, her eyes studying Emma.

"We need to get this timeline fixed," Regina said kissing her again.

"And do you have any idea how to do that?"

"We reverse your original plan," Regina said. "This time I do the flirting with Miss Swan. Between you and I, we should be able to come up with some effective techniques to get her to see I am a much better option than the pirate."

"This is exactly why I love you," Emma said pulling her in and kissing her.


	12. Chapter 12

Regina waited for Emma – the present Emma – to get there. She was waiting in her office with more than a little bit of nervousness built up in her.

It was one thing to make the bold declaration that she would flirt with Emma in order to help reset the timeline, but it was another matter to actually do it. It's not as if she hadn't flirted before, but this felt vastly different.

While she flirted with Daniel, that had come so naturally. Since then the only reason she had flirted was as a means to an end. She needed something or needed something done so she used her assets to get it. This wasn't the same, although she tried to tell her mind that it was the same. She wanted something – this future that the other Emma had told her about, and flirting with current Emma was the way to get it.

That was the way she tried to look at it, although not successfully.

"Sheriff Swan to see you mayor," her receptionist announced.

"Send her in."

Emma came in and stood in front of the desk. "Please tell me you have found a way to send her back."

Regina found she couldn't speak for a moment. Her mind had flashed to kissing future Emma and here was this other Emma who apparently wanted to do anything and everything to keep the timeline from being fixed.

"Um … no I haven't."

Emma sat down in disappointment.

Regina stood up and walked around the desk leaning up against the front of it in order to put her whole body on display. She was wearing a charcoal-colored skirt with a lighter shade of grey button up shirt and no jacket. The shirt was buttoned up only enough to appear proper while giving a good view of her chest if anyone wanted to look at it.

Right now, Emma was looking away from her entirely.

"I am working on it however. We have a few things we need to figure out," Regina said bringing Emma's attention back to her, but Emma's attention was on her face, not on her body. "As much I want Henry to be with me, we have to come up with some way for both of us to see him and you can't really have him in your apartment if she is there."

"What should I do with her, tie her up, gag and lock her in the closet every other weekend?"

"As much as I am sure you would enjoy that, no I don't think that is wise. We need to limit her contact with others. I think we can both agree on that. That leaves only one option and that is when Henry is at your place, she will have to stay at mine."

"What? No. I don't think that is a good idea," Emma said abruptly.

"How else do you propose we handle it then?"

"I don't know, but you shouldn't have to take her in."

Regina would like to have thought that Emma was saying this so to not burden her, but the truth was Emma didn't want future Emma around her.

Regina sighed and took a seat in the chair next to Emma's, crossing her legs toward the other woman. "If you don't see Henry he is going to ask questions."

Emma stood up and began to pace as she thought this through. Regina let her pace for a about 45 seconds before she got up and placed a hand on Emma's arm to stop her. Emma looked down at her hand for just a moment before taking a step back. "If, and it's a big if at this point, if we send her to your house while I have Henry what are you going to do with her?"

Regina could think of a few things she would like to do with her.

"I don't imagine I will be doing anything with her. She can stay in a guest room. As long as she doesn't leave the house or trash the place, I am not concerned with what she does with her time."

"You aren't curious at all about this future she comes from?"

"My concern is with not dying. Otherwise I don't think any person should have too much knowledge of their futures. It could have a ripple effect with unforeseen consequences. As I tried to tell you before."

"I don't really need another lecture about it."

"No I don't suppose it would matter," Regina said turning away from her. "At least your older self had the decency to try and apologize."

"You erected a magical barrier to prevent me from coming in," Emma said. "It's not as if I didn't think I should say I was sorry, but you didn't make it exactly easy."

"Maybe that was the point," Regina said facing her, and putting her hands on her hips to widen her stance. This wasn't going well so far and seemed to be headed toward yet another one of their arguments.

But this time when Emma looked away and then looked back at her, she caught it – the barest of glimpses, but it had happened. Emma had just looked at her chest before looking her in the eyes.

"Do you think we can put aside our differences long enough to handle this situation?" Emma said.

"I don't want to be odds with you," Regina said.

"Good because I don't want to be at odds with you either," Emma said. "We've shown we can work together toward a common goal before; and this is like that."

"Then let's work together. When Henry is with you, she stays with me. Your suggestion about tying her up and gagging her isn't an entirely unpleasant idea," she smiled.

"Um, yeah we should um probably avoid doing that," Emma said. "Look if she says something or does anything that would upset you while staying there … I just don't want that to happen. I am already on your shit list, and I don't need to add my future self's transgression to that."

"You are not my shit list as you call it," Regina said. "Was I angry at you? Yes. Am I still angry at you? No, but I am a bit upset with you, although not for the reason you may think."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"A future you has come back to prevent my death, but your biggest concern is sending this woman back. And like I said, she at least apologized."

Regina moved back behind her desk, she knew this round was over and while she certainly didn't succeed she felt better for letting the Savior know how she felt about her lack of concern. This may be her future wife, but that didn't mean she was going to let even her wife get away with treating her in a way she didn't deserve.

Emma was looking at the floor and then looked up. "We will need to figure out how to get her to your place discreetly," she said.

"I figure you can merely bringing her with you when you pick up Henry. Before Henry goes out, you make sure she goes around to the back door and I will let her in and then once you are back in your car, Henry can be sent out to you."

"Ok, that sounds like the best option. I will pick Henry up Friday, then?"

"Yes."

"Ok," Emma said and she walked to the door.

"And Miss Swan," Regina said. 'Thank you."

"For what?"

"For not apologizing when I pointed it out. If you are truly sorry, you will know the right time to do it."

Emma didn't say anything and walked out.

Regina sat down and got out her phone.

"Didn't go well," she texted to future Emma.

"It couldn't have gone too bad," she replied.

"It did."

"Ok, don't get discouraged. U can do this."

"This would be easier if I only had to win you over."

"You've already done that, which means U can do it again with her."

"All she is concerned with is getting you out of this time."

"I know."

"What if we can't fix this?"

"U can't think like that. She is me. I love U, which means she does."

Regina smiled at the 'I love U,' and wished she could feel as positive about it as future Emma. Right now she felt like current Emma was the kind of person who would put her on trial, take her son from her. No, that wasn't true either. Somehow she knew Emma wouldn't do that to her. But Emma certainly didn't seem to be interested in her beyond a means to an end – that end being sending future Emma back.

Regina wouldn't let that happen. The only way future Emma was going back was if it was to the right timeline.

She needed to do a better job next time around, be less confrontational with her. And maybe a little less Madame Mayor looking.

She sent one more text message, "tell me, how do you feel about me wearing leather?"

Future Emma sent her back a smiling face emoticon.

"Leather it is then," she said to herself.


	13. Chapter 13

A/N: Thank you everyone for the positive reviews on this story. It's been fun to write.

* * *

Emma asked future Emma to wear a hat so as to hide her features as they got out of the car. The other Emma was carrying a small bag of clothes and items she might need for the weekend. Younger Emma felt like she was escorting a prisoner, only because she didn't really trust her future self not to do something stupid. They made their way to Regina's backyard and knocked on the door. She knocked again when Regina didn't answer. She didn't want to be too loud. The last thing she needed was Henry opening the door and seeing two versions of her.

Finally the door opened.

"Sorry," Regina said. "I was having a little wardrobe malfunction."

Emma found no response in her throat. Here was Regina standing in front of her wearing jeans, leather riding chaps and a white short-sleeved shirt that was cut low – very low.

"Hold on," Regina said as if she didn't realize she had two women staring at her. Regina turned slightly and bent over releasing the buckle on the end of chaps that went around the bottom of her leather riding boots.

There wasn't a bit of that outfit that wasn't absolutely pinned to Regina like it had been painted on. When she bent over the Emmas had a view of her jean covered ass. Future Emma could hardly turn away from it but she had to in order to look at her younger self, who was indeed mirroring the stare she had on her face just moments before.

Regina straightened up. "You can go in there," Regina pointed to a door. "It's a small pantry, but until Henry is out of the house I would appreciate it if you remained hidden."

"Sure thing," Emma said as she moved across the threshold and as she moved behind Regina who was facing the other Emma, future Emma took the opportunity to again check out her wife's ass. When she looked up she saw her other self glaring at her. She made herself scarce to Regina could have a little alone time.

Present Emma, who still hadn't said anything, finally came out of her stupor. She motioned for Regina to step outside.

"What are you wearing?" she asked, although that is not what she meant to say.

"Um, I took the day off actually and decided to go horseback riding. I hadn't been in a long time," Regina said.

Emma thought she saw a trace of sadness cross Regina's face as she said it.

"Oh," Emma said. "I'm just not used to seeing you dress so … um casual."

"Yes, it's not my usual type of dress, but it's comfortable for riding in. My mother always insisted that I ride side-saddle as it was more befitting a lady, but it wasn't my style. I like to feel the horse between my legs. You can actually feel its muscles moving especially when you let it gallop. Have you ever had the pleasure of feeling like that between your legs?"

Emma wasn't sure she heard her right. "Um, I grew up in cities, not a lot of horses," she managed to say.

"Too bad. We have a fine stable here in Storybrooke, you should take advantage of it. Anyway, I am sure you didn't beckon me out here to talk about horses."

"No. I just wanted to make sure you were still ok with this, with her being here."

"Ok with it only in the sense that it will allow you to spend time with Henry," she said. "I think it's important that he be able to see both of us as much as possible. He has had a lot of changes in his life in a short amount of time and a sense of stability would do him good."

"Yeah, I'd like that if we could you know work something out that works for all of us."

"Maybe after we deal with your counterpart in there we could discuss some options."

"That would be good. Speaking of her, I mean it if she does anything or says anything to upset you, let me know immediately. Henry or not, I will come over and deal with it if needed."

"Thank you for your concern, but like I said before, she can stay in the guest room. There is no reason for her and me to have much contact. This isn't a slumber party."

Emma thought of how her future self would like it if it was a slumber party – at least one where she got to be in bed with Regina. She had a long talk with her about respecting Regina's boundaries, not pissing her off and above all remembering that this wasn't her wife.

"Alright, well if you need anything, call," Emma said. "I'm going go around front and you can send Henry out."

"I will. Have a good weekend sheriff," she said turning and going back inside. She didn't need to turn to see if Emma was still there watching her go, she could hear that she hadn't moved. Regina couldn't help but smile.

She entered the foyer and called out to Henry that Emma was outside. He came downstairs and she hugged Henry goodbye and closed the door behind him. She entered the kitchen.

"You can come out now," Regina said, and future Emma opened the door and rushed out pulling Regina into her arms and kissing her.

"You do not have this outfit in my time," she said.

"Special order," Regina said kissing her back. "Do you think it did the trick?"

"Oh, it certainly did for me."

Regina pulled away, "the point wasn't for it to do the trick for you. It was meant to entice Miss Swan."

"She was enticed. Trust me," Emma said moving close again.

"I think we should establish some ground rules for you staying here," Regina said taking a step back.

"Rules," Emma groaned. "Now you sound like her. Do you know she gave me like an hour long lecture about respecting you and your boundaries?"

"She did?" Regina asked, finding that kind of endearing on Emma's part.

"Yes she did. Do you know how annoying it is to be lectured by your younger self about touching your own wife?"

"That's sort of my point with the ground rules. I am not your wife. The goal is to become your wife, but I am not currently. And if I am to become your wife I have to make that connection with my Emma, the one from this time. I think it might be best if we refrained from physical contact."

"What?"

"I just think it would be best for all involved."

"It's not best for me."

Regina smiled. "That may be so, but I am asking you to not make this more difficult than it already is."

"You mean like not doing things like this," Emma said and she again pulled Regina to her, this time attaching her lips to Regina's neck. She kissed and sucked gently on that area, practically hearing Regina's heart beat race as she did it. She certainly had the advantage here of knowing what turned Regina on.

Regina felt herself getting lost in the feeling of Emma's lips on her skin, and as much as she wanted to get lost in it, she pulled back. "Um that is exactly what we can't do," she warned.

"You are no fun. Next thing you will be telling me I have to sleep in the guest room." Emma said the look on Regina's face. "You want me to sleep in the guest room?"

"It's for the best."

Emma growled, "This is so unfair," before leaving the room.

Regina got the feeling this was going to be a long weekend.

…

Henry got in the car and Emma started to drive them to her place.

"Sorry I haven't been able to see you much lately," she said.

"It's ok. I've got to spend time with mom and I think she needed me more."

"She probably did."

"She took the day off from work today on her own. I don't think she's ever done that unless I was sick."

"She's been through a lot lately, it was probably good for her."

"She went horseback riding. You should have seen what she was wearing. I've never seen her wear something like it."

"I am sure she looked good," Emma said, thinking about that outfit. Ruby had once joked about Regina wearing leather when she was the Evil Queen and Emma had seen her in all her Evil Queen glory in the past. The woman definitely knew how to dress for effect, but what she was wearing today didn't make her look like the Evil Queen. If anything it made her seem younger. Younger wasn't the right word, but Emma couldn't find a word to describe it.

It was both sexy and innocent. She wanted to hit herself in the head for thinking sexy, but it was true. Regina had always looked sexy to her, which her older self had pointed out. Still being physically attracted to her was one thing, but dating. Her and Regina. She couldn't even begin to imagine what that would entail. They were both dominant kind of women who found more things to fight about than agree about.

She made her mind stop thinking about it. But it wasn't easy. Ever since her future self had appeared and planted this seed in her mind it was all she could think about.

She tried to picture in her head what it would be like to ask Regina out and despite hearing her older self tell her about it, she just couldn't see it happening in her time. There had been so much hurt between her and Regina, and it had now been compounded by her bringing Marian back.

She didn't want Regina to die. She didn't want that future where her son hated her. She knew she needed to work out something with Regina so they could both have time with Henry and hopefully that would be enough to stop Regina's death.

The idea that Regina would kill herself was unfathomable to her. This woman had gone through too much already and survived it. But she also knew Henry was Regina's whole world and losing him may have been enough to push her over the edge.

Regina was a good mother. She had her faults yes, but every time Emma looked at Henry she knew this was a good kid because Regina had raised him to be a good kid. She imagined Regina would be a good mother to Alex as well and Emma wondered if she would be a good mother. She hadn't raised Henry except for in the memories Regina had given her. She had given Henry up because she believed she couldn't give Henry a good life because of the situation she was in at the time. But she wasn't that person anymore. Could she be a good mother to a child?

…

By breakfast on Saturday morning, Emma was finding this whole maintaining her distance thing nothing short of torture. Once she and Regina had firmly established their relationship they had always been touchy people. Even if it was a slight touch of the hand, a hug or a kiss, they both seemed to crave contact from the other. She had tried to kiss her goodnight before going to the guest room but Regina wasn't having any of it.

She did understand Regina's point about how she was supposed to be concentrating on present day Emma, but it didn't make it any easier for her. They were sitting at the kitchen table with Regina sitting on the end and Emma to her side.

"What's the plan for today?" Emma asked her.

"My plan was to research some magic to see about sending you back to your own time,"

"What?"

"Relax," Regina said in a calming voice. "I told Emma I would look into it and seeing as it's a way for her and I to talk more I thought it would be a good idea. I have no intention of sending you back. You said before you will go back on your own as soon as the timeline resets, right?"

"Yes. While you are doing that, what am I supposed to do?"

"I don't know. What do you do in your time when you aren't working?"

"I seduce my wife on a daily basis," she smiled.

"I am sure she appreciates that, but since that isn't an option, tell me what does Emma Swan like to do?"

"I don't know. Baseball, I like baseball, so sometimes I will sit and watch a game. During the summer I play softball in adult rec league. A lot of my non-work time is taken up by family stuff. We have a two-year-old and while you went through all of that with Henry, this is my first go around. My paranoia has known no bounds when it comes to Alex."

"Really? I honestly wouldn't have guessed that."

"Oh yeah. When she was first born every time she would cry I was sure there was something wrong. You would say she's just being fussy or this is what babies do. I am sure you got a kick out of seeing me stumble through it all."

"I was certainly no expert," Regina said. "When I first got Henry I had little to no idea what to do with a kid. You find a lot it trial and error."

"Well it would be easier if my wife didn't spoil Alex."

"And how does she do that?"

"Alex loves to go outside. When she wants to go out, you almost always take her. You need to learn a little more restraint or the kid is going to grow up thinking she can have whatever she wants. God, the first time you sternly told her no I am not sure who got more upset, the kid or you."

"I am sure I am not that bad."

"You just wait and see."

"I certainly hope I get to see it first hand."

"You will," Emma said touching her hand. "We will get there, together."


	14. Chapter 14

A/N: Ok, this chapter isn't as fluffy, just giving you a warning. I do have to advance the plot just a bit.

* * *

Emma was bored. She hated being bored. Regina was in her home office researching some magic and she had been left to her own devices. She had laid on the couch watching TV for a bit, but found that boring as anything she wanted to watch for her was a like a rerun. The she went walking through the house thinking of how much it had changed since she and Regina married. Right now it was a picture of order, but in her time it was clean and orderly just not quite as orderly as it was now.

Alex's toys were often scattered about in different places. There were sometimes condensation rings on end tables where Emma wouldn't put down a coaster first. There was a lot more laundry to be done.

She wondered upstairs and stood standing in the doorway of what was now Regina's bedroom, but would later become their bedroom. The bed was different as a mishap with the handcuffs one night damaged the headboard which Regina was unto pleased about. She had been highly upset that her bed, which she pointed out on numerous occasions had a hand-carved headboard, had been "destroyed" as she put it. When Emma had suggested she could get some wood glue and fix it she got a 45-minute lecture on how one does not glue a wooden masterpiece.

It also didn't help when Emma pointed out that it was Regina in the handcuffs so technically she broke the bed.

That had happened before they were married. Regina had gone to Gepetto to see about getting a new one and it was that bed that was the one they shared as a married couple.

There were so many memories in that bed.

_"Hey kid, can you hear me? It's me Emma," she said as she lay next to her pregnant wife. She had read how children could hear in the womb and she wanted her child to come out feeling connected to her voice. "It won't be long now until you get to come outside and I get to hold you and feed you and play with you. We're going go to have so much fun."_

_Regina merely smiled at Emma, who had made this a nearly nightly thing over the last couple of weeks. She wasn't wrong though, it wouldn't be much longer before their daughter arrived. The pregnancy had gone smoothly and Regina was way past the glowing stage of it and was more than ready to give birth. _

_"Do you think the kid is going to like me?" Emma asked suddenly._

_"She's going to come out saying your name if you keep up all of this nightly talking."_

_"I'm being serious."_

_Regina looked at her, seeing the serious expression on her face._

_"Of course she is going to like you. Why would you think otherwise?"_

_"I don't know," Emma shrugged. "I guess you know I've never really been a mom before."_

_"That's ridiculous. You are Henry's mom, he likes you."_

_"Yeah, but that is different. I didn't know Henry as a little kid so when I did meet him it's not like I acted like a mom to him. We were more like secret buddies. He called me Emma for how long? This is my first time being mom from the get go."_

_She had spent most of the pregnancy trying to be supportive of Regina and completely attentive of her needs that she hadn't discussed her own fears about being a parent. _

_"Listen to me. Our daughter is going to love you from the first moment she gets here because you love her. I know you didn't get the chance to hold Henry when he was first born, but you will get that chance with her. It's not going to be perfect," Regina said taking Emma's hand and placing it flat against her belly. "But this little girl is going to be the light of your life just a much as Henry is and as long as you show her that she is going to think you are super mommy."_

_Emma moved and gave Regina a kiss before settling back down on the bed._

_"Hey kid," she said resuming her conversation. "There is a word you need to learn. It's called sports. You might be a girl but that doesn't mean you can't be a standout athlete. Now your other mom is probably going to try to get you into gymnastics, ice skating or cheerleading, which are all fine choices, but let's be honest you are going to have more fun playing softball. I'm going to get you a bat and a ball, plastic at first, but I think your development will happen quickly. We need to decide if you are a pitcher rather quickly though because that's a different skill set to concentrate on."_

Future Emma thought about that night – it turned out to be just three days before Alex was born. Traditionally, the mother gets to hold the child first, but when the nurse moved to hand Regina their daughter, Regina told her to let Emma hold her first. She gave Emma the moment she had lost when Henry was born.

That was the thing with Regina. She could be this total hardass about some things – like not putting wet towels on the bed or floor – then she would turn around and do something completely touching. It was in those moments that Emma loved her most.

She turned from the bedroom and went downstairs. Maybe it was time for her wife to take a break. She made it to the office door as Regina was coming out of it.

"Done?" Emma asked hopefully.

"Not even close," she said. "I need to go to the mausoleum to gather a couple of other books. Will you be ok here by yourself?"

"How will you be gone?"

"Hopefully no more than an hour, but it could be a little longer. I am not even sure I have what it is I am looking for and will need to go through some of my mother's stuff as well."

"Ok, I will just watch TV or maybe go up to Henry's room and play some video games. Do you think when you get back that we might spend some time together?"

"I would like that."

Emma went back upstairs but mostly so she could watch for Regina to leave the house. She waited another five minutes to make sure Regina didn't come back for some reason. She disguised her features as best as she could and slipped out of the house.

She had a deal she had to complete.

…

Emma sat back against the railing of Killian's boat. He had offered to take her and Henry out for a sail. She had noticed Henry was a being a little standoffish to Killian ever since Emma had told them they were dating. She thought Henry liked Killian so she hadn't expected it to be an issue.

She had asked Archie about the other day and Archie told her it could be any number of things, but often when a parent engaged in a new relationship the child could become resentful, seeing that person as a threat to their own relationship with the parent. He reminded Emma that Henry had gone through a lot of changes in his life in a short amount of time and that this was the first time he had to really deal with one of his parents dating. Yes Neal had dated Tamara but Henry barely knew his father at that point.

She remembered asking about Regina, hadn't she dated at all when Henry was growing up and Archie shook his head no.

She knew when she first met Henry that even looking beyond the whole fairy tale thing he was getting her mixed up in that he was essentially lonely. She wondered now if perhaps that was an offshoot of his mother's loneliness.

A part of her was still finding the idea of Regina committing suicide as completely not possible. Of what she knew about Regina's past it seemed like she was the type of person to carry on no matter what. Had she really shot herself in that other timeline? Maybe there was some mistake. Maybe she had been murdered and the person was really good at covering their tracks. Maybe they made it look like a suicide. With Henry being so upset, she could see where possibly she dropped the ball in investigating it. She would have been preoccupied with him and no one else in the town would have cared either way probably if she was murdered or committed suicide.

She didn't even own a gun.

The more she thought about it, the more she was convinced that Regina was murdered in that other timeline. But how could she prove it? And if she could, what good would it do?

She hadn't slept well the night before and found at 3 a.m. she was using her tablet to compile notes on Regina's suicide like she would any other case. But she didn't have enough details.

"Lost in thought?" Killian asked coming to sit beside her.

"A little."

"What are you thinking about?"

"Nothing important," she said. "Thanks for taking us out on the boat."

"Anytime," he said. "I'm getting more familiar with the waters out here so pretty soon we could take a longer trip. I was thinking you and me could go away for a two or three weeks, just set sail and make some stops along the way down the coast. I've been reading up on some of the attractions this world has to offer and there is no one else I would rather share them with."

"That sounds nice, but I don't think going away that long is very realistic. What about Henry?"

"Your parents would watch him I am sure."

"What about Regina?"

"I am certainly not inviting her on our romantic getaway," he laughed.

"No," she said. "I meant you said my parents could watch Henry, why wouldn't Regina just have him for the time away?"

"If that is what it takes for you to go away with me then have at it."

She gave him a look of confusion. She wasn't sure if she was being unclear with what she asked. "Forget the trip for a moment," she said. "Why if I wasn't here would you automatically think my parents would watch over Henry, why wouldn't Regina? She is his mother."

He shrugged, clearly not interested in the conversation. "It's not like you cared about that when you were planning on going back to New York. Besides the kid obviously prefers you and you are his real mother. Mister Smee was telling me that in this world about the whole court stuff and what not and you could make it legal you know."

"Make what legal?"

"Your custody of Henry. You'd be his mom and you wouldn't have to worry if Regina goes all Evil Queen mode because he wouldn't be around her."

One of the sails came loose and Killian got up to fix it. Emma just sat there. Had he really just suggested what she thought he had suggested? After fixing the sail, he came back down to sit beside her.

"Why were you asking Smee about this kind of thing anyway?"

"You said this whole situation with Marian was stressing you out. I am trying to help here. There are plenty of people in this town who have no love for the queen and most believe Henry would be better off being as far away from her as possible. I mean I spent time with Cora, and let me tell you that is one family line that probably should end with Regina. Could you imagine if she actually had a child of her own? Look, I get it, you are in a tough spot because of Henry, and I am just throwing an option out there for you. I plan on us spending a lot of time together and I don't want to see you stressed like you get when it comes to Regina, that is all."

He leaned over and kissed her on the cheek. "Now what's say we open up the sails a little and see what this boat can do?"

"Yeah, sure," she said. "I just forgot I need to make a call to my mom and I should do that before we get too far out."

"Ok, make your call and I will show Henry how to prepare for a little speed."

Killian got up and Emma took out her phone. It was a little windy and she wasn't sure she had the bar strength but now that the thought was in her head she knew she wouldn't be able to get it out until she got her answer. She hit Regina's name on her call list.

It rang three times before Regina answered.

"Calling to check up on me so soon?" Regina said.

"Um no, I mean yes. How is it going with her?"

"Where are you at?" Regina asked, hearing the wind.

"Well Hook, he took Henry and me out on the boat."

"Oh."

Silence.

"Are you ok?" Emma asked.

"What? Yes, fine."

"Where are you at?" Emma asked suddenly, hearing a weird echo with Regina's voice.

"I'm in the mausoleum. I need to get some books to look through if I am going to help you send your counterpart back."

"Please tell me you didn't leave her alone."

"I did. She's an adult; I don't think she needs constant supervision. When I left she was up in Henry's room playing a video game."

"Just don't be gone long, ok?"

"I hadn't planned on it. Why are you so worried her being alone?"

"I just don't want her getting it in her head that she can stroll down Main Street. But forget that, that's not why I called. I um need to ask you a question and I need you to not ask me why I am asking or anything and no I am not asking as sheriff, ok?"

Regina had no idea where this was going so she agreed.

"Do you own a gun?" Emma asked. "An unregistered one because I know you don't have a registered one."

There was a pause and Emma knew Regina wanted to ask her why she was asking this question.

"Since you aren't asking as sheriff, and I am going to have to trust you are asking this for a reason that doesn't involve you having me arrested for an illegal firearm, I will say that if I had such a weapon, I can assure you that it is no where that Henry could ever get to it, if his safety is your concern."

"Why do you have a gun? You have magic which for you is like a million times better than having a gun."

"You are forgetting that before you broke my curse we lived in a land without magic."

This time Emma was the one to pause. "Ok, fine, but when I come to drop Henry back off with you, I want you to give that gun to me."

"Why?"

"I can't say why, just please Regina, please give me that gun."

Pause.

"I will think about it."

Emma knew that was the best she was going to get. "Ok, one last question. What kind of gun is it?"

"It's the same brand as your sheriff's gun. The Sig Sauer M-11 Centerfire pistol."

"You have the same type of gun as me?"

Another pause. "Graham procured it for me and taught me how to shoot it."

Emma thought not about Graham but about the type of gun itself. It was sold for commercial use so anyone could buy one, but the actual design of it by Sig Sauer was specifically meant for military and law enforcement. Her gun had been supplied to her by the Storybrooke sheriff's office, but when she took over she had upgraded the firearms so none of the other members of the department used it. She had kept hers because she felt more comfortable with it.

"Think about what I said please," Emma said wanting to end this conversation. "You have your magic now, you don't need a gun."

"I hope you at some point will be willing to tell me why we are having this talk," Regina said. "But yes, I will think about it. You are right; my magic is more effective than a gun."

"Thanks," she said hanging up.

She stared at the phone in her hand. Regina had an unregistered gun, which means if she had committed suicide, she had the means to do it. She looked at Killian who was showing Henry something, although Henry didn't seem that enthused about it. Had she let Killian convince her to contest for custody in the other timeline, she wondered.

Had she been responsible for Regina's suicide?

No, she told herself. Regina would simply not do that. She was absolutely sure she knew Regina well enough to know it was not possible. And she was looking at the one reason it wasn't possible – Henry.


	15. Chapter 15

A/N: So I really want to take this story in two different ways from this point, therefore I am considering doing a Happy Ending Alt Version as well. Just be warned.

* * *

The bell attached to the door rang as she entered Mr. Gold's shop. She looked around – much of it looked the same as from her time although in her time there was a lot more dust.

She discovered in the alternate timeline that not too many people came to the pawn shop anymore, most didn't want to risk contact with its owner.

"Hello Emma," Belle said cheerfully. "Back again so soon."

Emma paused.

"Um yeah," Emma said figuring her younger self must have been here recently. "I hope things are well with you."

"Things are good," she said.

"Is your husband around?"

"He's in the back."

"Do you mind?"

"No go ahead."

She went into the back again looking at Belle. She was so full of life, Emma thought.

"Sheriff Swan, are you back to talk about the finer points of time travel again," he said not looking at her at first, but then he did and smiled. "You aren't the sheriff."

"Not of this time."

He got up and walked around her –examining her in a way that creeped her out, but she reminded herself he would get a lot creepier in the alternate future.

"And to what do I owe the pleasure of a future Emma Swan coming to see me."

"I am here to finish my end of the deal we made in the future."

"You and I made a deal?"

"Yes. You are the reason I am back here. I couldn't do it on my own, so I had no choice."

"What is so important back here that you are willing to make a deal with me to see it through?"

"Like I told your future self that is my business, not yours," she said. "But we had an agreement so I am here to fulfill it."

"Then my all means fulfill it."

Emma looked back out to the main shop at Belle.

"The deal was I would tell you something was going to happen to Belle."

"Belle? What happened to her?" he asked with all urgency.

"She died."

"What? How? When?" he said grabbing a hold of her.

"Telling you the details isn't part of the deal," she said breaking free. "Look I don't want Belle to die either. The whole town practically came out for her funeral – everyone except you from what I understand. Her death takes you into a downward spiral of insanity. You stay holed up in this shop all the time and rarely come out. People are afraid of you. All I can tell you is what your future self told me to tell you, which is that you should have given Belle the dagger. I don't know what it means but that is what he told me to tell you. Now I have to get going."

He grabbed her arm. "You can't just leave. You can't tell me my Belle is going to die and not tell me when or how."

"I completed my end of the bargain," she said pulling away again. She got to the doorway and walked back to him. "Look, I don't know why your future self told me to tell you that, but in that future Belle died in a fire at the library. It was ruled accidental from what I know. But that future where we made that deal, it's not my future which is why I am back here. When Emma brought Marian forward it changed my future and put me in that other timeline. I want back to my timeline."

"Is Belle alive in that timeline?"

"Yes."

"Then what do I have to do in order to help you restore the timeline?"

"Nothing that I can think of at the moment. But if my present self comes asking for help in getting rid of me it would be in your best interest not to help. Don't do anything to her because it would do it to me essentially. I can fix this. You gave me the time to fix it."

"How much time do you have?"

"Enough," she said even though she wasn't so sure.

…

Regina returned home to find Emma was right where she left her – in Henry's room playing a game. She almost shook her head at the fact present day Emma had so little trust for her future self. It made her sad to think that present Emma was so dead set against her and Regina getting together. In the short amount of time she had gotten to spend with future Emma it was clear that she was in love with her wife Regina.

The idea that she could have such a happy future – have a daughter was enough to convince Regina that she needed to get Emma to see they could have that life. But her Emma wasn't willing to see it. She was sure Emma was at least attracted to her physically but that wasn't going to be enough.

Why was it so easy for her to talk to future Emma and yet so hard to talk to her Emma?

"Are you winning?" Regina asked as she leaned against the doorway.

"Of course," Emma smiled before turning back to her game.

"Emma called me," Regina said and then paused as Emma paused the game and turned to look at her. "She and Henry were out on the boat with Hook."

"What is with this fascination she has with the pirate?"

"I don't know. When we were in Neverland he was laying it on pretty thick with her but she didn't seem interested then."

"I wasn't and while we got along ok in the past in the Enchanted Forest I was still ignoring his advances, which he made like every two seconds. He doesn't seem to understand the concept of not interested."

"There is something else. When Emma called she asked me if I had an unregistered gun. Do you have any idea why she would ask me that?"

"Do you have an unregistered gun?"

"Yes."

"Really?"

"Yes. Did you not know this?"

"No. In my time you have never mentioned having a gun. In fact you have made several comments to me about how pointless it is for me to carry one when my magic is a better option. Where is this gun?"

"Locked in a gun safe in the back of my closet hidden away so Henry could never find it."

"Show me."

They went to her bedroom and Emma waited for Regina to retrieve the small gun safe and bring it out. She punched in the combination and opened the lid. Emma looked inside to see a Sig Sauer pistol. She picked it up and looked at it.

"This is the exact same model I use."

"I know. As I told Emma, Graham got it for me and taught me how to use it. Do you think her asking me about it has anything to do with me dying in the future?"

When future Emma had told her about their marriage and what had happened, she still hadn't told her about the suicide. She didn't even want to put that seed in Regina's mind so Regina still believed in the alternate timeline that she had been shot and killed.

"I don't see how it would," she answered.

"What kind of gun was I shot and killed with?"

Emma knew exactly what gun it was – she was holding it in her hand. She had read the police report on it so the details were in her head.

"I think it was a 32 if I remember right. Something more powerful than this. Not that this is a bad gun, it's not. I just don't see why you would have it."

"Land without magic, remember? I was mayor and Graham thought it would be a good idea if I knew how to defend myself if anything happened."

"I get that, but why wouldn't you tell me about it when we started dating or got married?"

"How should I know?"

"Think it through; what possible reason do you think you would have to not tell me?"

Regina thought about it a moment. "I don't know, maybe I forgot it was in there and when I remembered I got rid of it thinking there was no reason to bother you with it. You are the sheriff and it probably isn't a good idea for your wife to be caught with an unregistered firearm. Who knows why I did it; it's impossible to say. But Emma wants me to turn it over to her when she drops Henry off on Sunday."

"Why?"

"I don't know, she asked me to do so and even said please."

"I will try and find out from her when she picks me up on Sunday."

"Should I give it over to her? I really have no use for it."

"Let me think about it. But for now you said we could spend some time together when you got back. You're back so I expect you to fulfill your end of the bargain."

"Do I give into you a lot in the future?"

"It's a constant give and take believe me."

"I hope so. I would hate to think you turn me into some whipped, love sick fool."

"Maybe a little," Emma smiled.

…

Sunday rolled around and Regina found she didn't want future Emma to leave. It had been a nice weekend. They had cooked dinner together on Saturday night and had eaten at the dinner table. Later they sat on the couch and completely ignored the TV as they talked.

_"I am probably boring you with things you have heard me say before," Regina said after a while. _

_"Nah, you couldn't bore me," Emma said looking at her in way that made Regina want to kiss her. "Besides, it's not like I can tell you too much about the future."_

_"Yes, I know," Regina said. "Tell me, was it really just seeing me with Robin that set you off?"_

_"Yes and no. I was always attracted to you. You practically exude sex when you walk around in those skirts. But given our history I never really thought about us as in an us. Then Neverland happened and suddenly we were working together and despite you giving me a hard time about my magic and everything else you could get a snide remark in about, I started to see that I enjoyed being around you. There is nothing simple about you and I like that. See you and I could never be boring because we constantly challenge each other and not just in the bedroom."_

_Regina was beginning to lose some of that resolve. Here was an Emma that clearly cared for her and it seemed unfair suddenly that her Emma couldn't see that._

_"Hey, what's with the sad face?" Emma asked inching closer._

_"Why is Emma with the pirate? If you say you started to see me differently in Neverland then why is she content to just be with him? You two seem so different that it's hard to see you as the same person."_

_"I know, it's difficult for me too because I know how I feel for you and I know she cares for you but she is fighting it for some reason. I know we are meant to be together and as soon as she opens her eyes a bit, she will see it too. We need to give it a little time is all," Emma said. "I was little stubborn at first too, that is why seeing you with Robin was so important. Seeing him make you smile when I knew that I could make you smile, it was so unfair. Then when I saw him kiss you …"_

_She leaned in and gave Regina a kiss – a deep kiss and Regina was kissing her back immediately. They continued to kiss and Emma brought her hand up to feel Regina's breast through her clothes and that did it as Regina backed up._

_"We can't."_

_"I know," Emma said disappointed. The way she saw it this was her wife and she didn't see a problem, but she also understood Regina's standpoint. _

_"It's not that I don't want to, it's just …"_

_"Your Emma," she said. "You know maybe you should just grab her and kiss her, and then tear all her clothes off. I think at that point she won't be able to resist."_

_"I will keep that in mind," she smiled. "I just need to find a way to get through to her – my own way."_

Now it was time for Henry to come home and future Emma to leave. There had been more kisses that morning, despite Emma's assurance she would lay off. Kissing her felt so natural to Regina though that it was hard to resist her.

Emma gave her one last kiss was her younger self pulled in the driveway. She then disappeared out the back as Emma walked Henry up to the door.

Regina opened the door wearing a pair of jeans and a T-shirt with a V neck. It was more casual than her normal wear but Emma had told her she liked Regina in the casual look. Henry hugged Emma and went inside.

"Can we talk?" Emma said.

"Yes, come in."

They went back to the kitchen. "Where is she?"

"Probably in your car already."

"Did she cause you any issues?"

"No, not all," Regina responded. "In fact she was actually quite … charming."

"I'm sorry did you just call me charming?"

"Technically I called her charming."

"How was she charming?"

"She just was. She was … it was nice being able to talk to her, to you, without conflict."

"We don't have a conflict every time we talk," Emma said feeling the need to defend herself suddenly.

"I suppose not, but this was just … different."

"I'm not a bad person," Emma said.

"I didn't mean to imply that you were," Regina said. "I was merely pointing out that your future self and you aren't exactly the same. It's amazing to think a few short years could make much of a difference, but in this case it does. She … there is an easiness about her that I can't quite define. She listens well and she's rather funny."

"What did you two talk about exactly?"

"A bunch of random topics. For instance I had no idea that you used to like boy bands," she smiled.

"Hey I grew out that phase,"

"Still, it's kind of cute."

"Can we change the subject please before I find out she told you any other teenage tidbits?"

"Sure, what did you want to talk about?"

"The gun, where is it?"

"It's upstairs locked away."

"Go get it."

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because you haven't given me a reason to turn it over to you."

"I am the sheriff; it's an unregistered gun, what more reason do you need?"

"You said you weren't asking as sheriff."

"Come on Regina, just hand it over. I would feel better if you didn't have a gun in this house."

"It's been here for years and it's of no danger to Henry. He has no idea I have it or where it is located."

"I don't care. I want it out of this house. Please, for once would you just trust me that I think this is the best for you?"

Regina considered her a moment, seeing that this clearly meant a lot to the other woman. "Let me go get it."

"Thank you."

Regina returned several minutes later and handed her the lock box. "The combination is 209967."

"Thank you," Emma repeated.

"What are you going to do with it?"

"Lock it away at the sheriff's office," she said. "Now I should get going and get me and my future self home."

"Yes," Regina said. "Well have a good evening."

"Yeah um you too. I will talk to you later."

Emma walked out and got into her car. Her future self was lying on the back seat so no one would see her.

"What happened this weekend?" she asked as soon as she pulled out of the driveway.

"What do you mean? Nothing happened this weekend."

"Yeah well Regina thinks you are charming so something must have happened."

"Charming? She actually used that word?" Emma said sitting up with a smile on her face.

"Would you lie back down before someone sees you?" young Emma said. "And yes she said that so I want to know what happened. Are you trying to date her or something because we talked about what a horrible plan that is?"

"She and I talked that is it. Most of what she talked about were things I had heard her say before and as for me, I couldn't very well talk to her about the future so we talked about my past a little."

"That is my past too so I would appreciate if you didn't go around telling her things like how I like boy band music."

Emma laughed, "You should know I told her about Jenny Sampson, not the whole sleeping with her part, but stuff like kissing her."

"Why would you do that?"

"The subject just came up."

"I bet."

"Why don't you tell me why you asked Regina for her gun?"

"Because she has no reason for having it."

"I agree, but why all of a sudden do you care if she has it?"

"Does she have it in your time?"

"I don't know. I didn't know anything about it which means she either got rid of it at some point, or just never told me about it."

"Don't you think this whole suicide is a little odd? What about Regina gives you any inkling that she would commit suicide?"

"Nothing, except that is what happened."

"What if that isn't what happened?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean what if she was murdered?"

"It doesn't matter. I fix the timeline and that never happens."

"But what if it does matter? I changed things by bringing Marian back here and it changed your timeline, so why do you remember your own time? Shouldn't you have forgotten it all of it and just had memories of the time you were now in? No one else had memories, just you. Don't you think that is odd?"

"I don't know. I don't have a time traveling rule book to tell me these things."

"What if you remember for a reason? What if it brought you back to this time not because of your timeline but because of the other? If science fiction TV has taught us anything it's that there can be infinite numbers of alternate timelines out there."

"I am only concerned about getting back to mine."

"Yes to a timeline where you are in love with Regina and are married to Regina, yet you don't seem to care that there is this other timeline where she dies. A timeline you ended up in despite the infinite possibilities. You don't think there is a reason for that? Don't you care that she dies?"

"Of course I do I am trying to prevent it, but I still fail to see your point. If you would open up your eyes and see what a wonderful woman she is and see that she is perfect for you then everything gets fixed."

"Everything in your future gets fixed, but not mine. You ended up in my future from this timeline so you keep reminding me. A timeline where Regina dies. You don't know that if I started to date her that it prevents that. You just know it sends you back to your happy home. You tell me since you know Regina so well, would she ever commit suicide?"

"No," she conceded.

"Finally, something we can agree on. It wouldn't happen, which means we are left with the alternative."

"That she was murdered."

"You worked out a deal with Gold to send you back to where it all changed and it sent you here, you believe because this is where you need to fix things for your timeline. But what if it sent you back because something here is what leads to Regina's murder?"

"I am getting headache thinking about this."

"Welcome to my weekend," she said. "What do you know about her supposed suicide?"

"Everything I suppose. I read the police report."

"Good, when we get home you need to reproduce it."


	16. Chapter 16

"You can't be serious," younger Emma said. "The police report on her suicide was only three pages long and that included the coroner's report. That isn't possible. Coroner's preliminary autopsies are like three pages minimum."

"I thought it strange as well, but like I keep telling you the details of that timeline weren't really what I was concentrating on. I had to beg my dad to see it and the transcripts from the custody hearing. He thought I was insane."

"Alright, we're going to have to go through this step by step the best we can."

"Before we do, can I ask why you are all of a sudden so concerned about this."

"We might not agree on where you want your life to go versus where I want my life to go, but we can both agree that we don't want that future where Regina is dead and our life sucks. I've been thinking about this all weekend. It simply doesn't make sense. Every time I look at Henry, I know Regina would not do anything to purposely take herself from his life. She couldn't do it. I have thought there was something weird about this whole you appearing here at this time from the beginning. I know you believe you are here to fix your timeline, but I am not going to discount the possibility you are here to fix my timeline."

They were both sitting on the couch back at the apartment facing each other. Future Emma had to admit her young counterpart made a good point about her still having her memories in tact and the idea that neither believed Regina capable of suicide. But if this Emma was right, then how did she get her own timeline fixed?

She sighed, knowing her timeline or not she wasn't going to stand by if someone had murdered Regina.

"The report stated that Regina's body was found in Henry's room, which is on the second floor of the mansion. The door was closed when Henry found her. His statement was included and he stated he had entered the mansion called out her name but no one answered. He went looking downstairs first and found nothing. He was going to go to her room next but as he passed his he thought he smelt something. He opened the door and found her lying face down next to his bed. He knew immediately she was dead. He called the emergency dispatch center, not you."

"Not technically me,"

"You know what I mean. Anyway, you arrive on scene as does dad. You have him take Henry away. The report was very simple and didn't even include measurements of where the body was in relation to objects in the room, which is standard practice. The gun was collected for evidence, and it was later recorded as being a Sig Sauer M-11 Centerfire pistol."

"Just like the one Regina had."

"Yes, although without knowing the serial number on the gun used in the suicide…"

"Murder."

"The murder, we have no way of knowing if that was the one used or not."

Emma was taking notes on her tablet. She had already developed a whole set of questions she was going to ask her future self regarding it, but it sounded like there was a complete lack of information in the report.

"Did the report um say um where she was shot at?"

"In the head. Right temple."

Emma paused before she typed the information in.

"How long … did it say how long she had most likely been dead before Henry found her?"

"Maybe a day."

"GSR on her hand?"

"The report didn't note it either way. It didn't include any information on how many bullets were in the gun, if there was a contact point on her temple to indicate how closely she may have held it to her head and there was no mention of a toxicology report being done which is why the coroner's findings were so short."

"Wait. This report, who wrote it and who signed off on it, because I am sorry, I would never have signed off on a report like that."

"Written by Emma Swan, so no one else needed to sign off since she is sheriff."

Emma got up and paced back and forth. "You didn't find this all a little odd when you were there in that timeline?"

"Yes, but I was more preoccupied with the idea that my wife was dead."

"There has to be something wrong with all of this."

"I agree. The report was quite lacking, but you are forgetting that this came on the heels of the custody hearing. She had just been skewered publicly by half the town. Why would anyone question if she committed suicide?"

"I would have," Emma said with all certainty. "I don't care what you believe me capable of; there is no way I would have shirked off on this report. I would have investigated it. I would have asked questions and made sure that it was investigated right."

"I get that you feel the need to look into this and make this the reason I am here, but do you realize that there are too many answers we don't have to even know if she was murdered and if so by whom. What do you really think you are going to accomplish with this?"

Emma sat back down, this time just on the edge of the cushions. "I don't know. Change things I guess but without knowing exactly what happened when she died … maybe you are right and there are too many questions with too few answers."

Future Emma considered her younger self a moment. She could see that Emma really believed that Regina didn't commit suicide. Maybe she knew Regina better than she thought she did. This had been the most concern she had seen her show for Regina so she was praying there was hope yet. She just needed to keep her focused on Regina."Maybe there is a way to get those answers."

"How so?"

"I know someone in this town that has a vested interest in the future, and he might be able to help."

"Who?"

"Gold."

…

They had to wait until the next day to see Gold and future Emma still hadn't explained why she thought Gold could be of help. Emma didn't like the idea of going with future Emma, and that is when she confessed that she had already gone to see Gold when she was supposed to be Regina's.

"Why did you go see him?"

"I told you, he helped me get here. I had to go fulfill my end of the bargain that got me here."

"Which was what?"

"Between him and me. Don't worry; it was just a message I had to deliver."

"I worry a lot more since you got here."

They arrived and then younger Emma went in first and the other a few moments later. By that time Emma had informed Gold that both of them needed to talk to him. They gave him the watered down version of what they were looking into.

"And why should I care if Regina passes away in the future – suicide or murdered?" he said.

"Because what we are trying to do is fix a future," older Emma said.

"Whose future hers or yours?"

"Both and perhaps yours as well."

He considered it for more than a few moments. "I can't send one of you to the future."

"We figured," younger Emma said. "But is there anyway to get answers about something that could happen in the future? We're looking for anything here."

Gold again thought it through. "There may be a way." He walked into the back of the shop and came back with a book. "Have you heard of astral projection?"

"Are you serious?"

"You did say anything. It's also not quite what astral projection pretends to be in this world."

"How does it work?"

"Simple enough. You take a potion, your consciousness will move into the future since you body can't. From there you can observe and perhaps get your answers."

"What's the catch?" future Emma asked knowing there had to be one.

"The catch is your consciousness can't just be floating around. It needs an anchor. It will naturally anchor in your future body. But once there, you won't be able to control your future self. You will be like a shadow in the back of their mind. You will be able to hear, see, feel through their body but you won't be in control of it. They will. You will just be along for the ride."

"Is there a danger of not coming back?"

"Shouldn't be. As soon as the potion wears off you will wake."

"Sounds a little too easy," future Emma said.

"Magic is never easy. I think you are underestimating what it will be like to hitchhike in another mind. Let's say for instance you are there in the mind and that person gets in a car wreck, has a heart attack or gets shot. You are going to experience it but be unable to do anything. You are trapped there until you wake. So which one of you is going to do it?"

"I am," they both said at the same time.

"I will start making the potion while you two argue it out," he said.

"I am doing it," younger Emma said first.

"Coming to Gold was my idea."

"And looking into Regina's death was my idea. No argument. I am doing this. You already got a look at the future, it's my turn."

…

"So this is it," Emma said the potion in her hand.

"If you want to change your mind …" her future self said.

"No, I want to do it," she said. "Are you prepared to be me for the next 12 hours?"

Gold had explained the potion would only last that long so she would be asleep the entire time. She figured 12 hours was more than enough time to see firsthand the initial investigation.

"I think I can handle being Emma Swan," she said. "You just be careful and be observant as much as you can be. We only get one shot at this."

Emma had changed into some comfortable clothes when they first got back to the apartment. She laid down on the bed now, looked one more time at her future self and drank the potion.


	17. Chapter 17

A/N: For this chapter everything is from the alternate future Emma's perspective. The present day Emma is there in her mind observing it all, having access to everything the other Emma sees, feels and thinks. Just don't over think the whole time travel stuff, it only leads to headaches.

* * *

Emma pulled up to the mansion. She tried to keep her hand from shaking as she opened the door. She already knew what to expect – Regina was dead, shot to death.

She forced her emotions down and exited the car, walking up to the house like she had done so many times before. As soon as she walked in she saw her father kneeling down in front of Henry who was sitting on the steps. He had discovered the body, something the dispatchers had told her.

"Henry, I …"

Henry's look at her stopped her from saying anything else.

"Um dad, why don't you take Henry to your place, you can get his statement there."

"I'm not leaving," Henry said standing up.

"Yes you are," she said. "This is a crime scene and I have an investigation to get started on."

She started to walk past him up the stairs.

"Make sure you take a long look at her," Henry said. "This is what you wanted after all."

Emma didn't turn to look at him, just paused a moment and continued up the stairs. She trusted that her dad would get him out of there. She got to the top and stopped looking not at Henry's room at first, but instead toward the end of the hall where Regina's room was. She shook off the chill she suddenly felt and entered Henry's room.

She almost turned right back around at the sight of Regina's body lying there. Instead she moved further into the room walking around the body. She could tell by how the blood was dried and caked she had been dead for a while.

The gun lay nearby and she didn't notice any splatter pattern on the other side of the wound, which meant the bullet hadn't exited the skull. It wasn't unusual for a bullet to remain lodged inside a skull and it would need to be removed to compare to the gun. She put on her rubber gloves so as to not disturb the evidence. She pulled out her phone and took several pictures of the scene. Once that was done she bent down and examined the gun – recognizing it immediately as the same type she carried.

She took a close up picture of it and its relation to the body and then picked it up carefully. There were scratches on the side of it where someone had removed the serial number leaving her no way to trace whose gun it was. She put it back down and stood back up looking around. The gun was near Regina's hand which meant she could have dropped it after shooting herself. Still, it seemed relatively clear from anything. When a person gets shot in the head they merely drop where they stand if death happens instantly. She had fallen forward based on how the body lay yet the gun hadn't fallen in a way where she or any part of her body had fallen on it. It was possible, Emma thought.

She bent down again to look at the wound itself. There was a lot of blood of course but she was seeing some black gunpowder stains that come with close contact shootings.

Emma backed away and took in the scene as a whole. She moved around the body taking more pictures and trying to figure out why Regina had come in here. There was nothing disturbed that she could tell, but then again she didn't have a complete inventory of Henry's room to know the difference. The room was clean as she imagined it had been since the last time Henry was in it.

There was a knock on the door and she turned to see the guys from the morgue there.

"Can we take her yet?"

"Give me a few more moments," she said.

"Ok, we will be downstairs, just let us know."

She looked around the room some more, bagging the gun up as evidence.

No note. Statistically speaking women tended to leave notes when they commit suicide. She stood there looking still at Regina's body. Her body. She was dead. Even standing there Emma had a hard time reconciling the idea that the fiery brunette could actually be dead. She half expected there to be a puff of magic and Regina would be standing there demanding to know what she was doing there.

Finally, she walked out and called down to the guys to collect the body. She moved out of the way so they could do their work and she walked over to Regina's room.

The bedroom was immaculate as Regina liked things to be. The woman could be downright OCD Emma thought. She walked to the foot of the bed and thought about the one night she had spent in it.

_Emma was nervous as she rang the doorbell to the mansion. It had been a few days since she had returned Marian to this time and she hadn't seen nor spoken to Regina since that night at Granny's. She felt guilty, not for saving Marian, but for its affect on Regina. _

_She was surprised that Regina actually opened the door._

_"What is it Miss Swan, have you brought some other poor soul back from the past to help ruin my life?"_

_"Can I come in?"_

_"No."_

_"Regina," she sighed. "Please, I just want to talk."_

_"Fine, make it quick," Regina said moving out of the way. Emma entered and Regina led her into the main room. _

_"I'm sorry. I know you don't think I am, but I really am. I never knew who Marian was."_

_"Would it have made a difference if you had?"_

_Emma looked away._

_"Of course it wouldn't have," Regina said. "You are the Savior all you do is save people, especially from the Evil Queen."_

_"I don't see you like that," Emma said quickly. _

_"What do you want?" Regina asked crossing her arms. "Why are you here?"_

_"I just wanted to make sure you were ok," Emma said. "And I … look before this thing with Marian, we, you and I were actually getting along. We were working together and you discovered you had light magic and well I thought things were going good."_

_"If your concern is that I am going to go on some murderous rampage through the countryside you can be at ease sheriff, I have no such plans."_

_"That's not what I … why do you have to be so difficult all the time? I was trying to be nice."_

_"Nice. You break up the one relationship I've felt good about since Daniel died and you want me to what exactly, be friends with you?"_

_"I don't know. I don't see why we have to be at each other's throats all the time."_

_"Because that is apparently the way life wants it to be."_

_"Bullshit. This whole Savior and Evil Queen stuff is a bunch of bullshit. They are just roles and we don't have to play them."_

_"Says the woman who is clearly on the better side of it."_

_"You think I like people having these high expectations of me because I am Snow White and Prince Charming's daughter? Why do you think I wanted to go back to New York? Why I didn't want to be here?"_

_"Because you wanted to take Henry from me."_

_"No. It had nothing to do with you and everything to do with not wanting to be part of this fairy tale. I just want to be Emma. Not Emma the Savior. I want to make my own choices. I want to be free."_

_They had slowly been advancing on each other and as soon as she said it Regina was kissing her. She was so shocked that she didn't kiss back immediately but once she did, she wrapped her arms around Regina, pulling her in close. _

_They ended upstairs in this very bed._

"Sheriff, sheriff?"

Emma turned to see one of the morgue guys was in the doorway. "We're done and will be heading out."

"Ok. Tell the coroner I will be there a little later."

"Will do."

Emma looked again at the bed. How had things gone so badly so quickly? How had they gone from making love to her standing over Regina's dead body in there?

She went back into Henry's room, and saw the blood on the carpet. She felt the weight of Regina's death hit her suddenly and she turned away from the blood, walking over to the window, staying there until she felt it pass.

She walked through the rest of the house feeling the emptiness of it and wondering if that is how it felt to Regina after Henry was gone. She went down to Regina's home office and over to the desk. Everything was clean here as well. She opened up the top drawer and found an envelope with her name on it. She pulled it out and saw it appeared to be a hand-written letter.

_Emma,_

_When my beloved Daniel was murdered I used to spend days in isolation thinking of the what ifs. What if he had lived? What if he and I had gotten our happy ending? I became obsessed with the idea of a life I would never lead. _

_The story of my life should be a lesson in what not to do. _

_Maybe it was nothing less than I deserved for the harm I have caused others. Maybe it was another of life's reminders that I don't get a happy ending. _

_You took away my only chance at happiness when you took Henry away from me. And what hurts the most is that you knew what you were doing. _

_I sit here and I keep wondering why. The night we spent together meant more to me than you could ever imagine. I had always found you to be attractive, and yes sexy, but the idea that you shared the same dream I had – the dream of a life of freedom – was a complete surprise. That is why I kissed you. I thought here is someone who understands what it is like to have people define them, unable to make your own choices._

_You said to me that night that the Savior and the Evil Queen were roles but we didn't have to play them and for a brief time I believed that. I believed it until you forced me to play that role in court in front of the entire town, in front my son._

_Now that I am left with nothing I find myself here again thinking about the what ifs. What if you hadn't left that morning like you did? What if you had just talked to me? What if you had accepted that it wasn't a one-night stand? What if you had kissed me first? _

_I need to tell you that…_

The letter just stopped in midsentence. Even though it didn't fill the whole paper she flipped it over to look for more and checked the drawers again. Why would Regina not finish the letter? Was this supposed to be her suicide note?

She bit her lip as she thought about it. Regina wouldn't leave an incomplete letter behind as her final words. It went against everything Emma knew of her.

She put the letter back in the envelope and folded it up, sticking it in her back pocket. She needed to make sure no one else ever saw that letter.

Emma began to pace behind the desk, feeling like the walls were closing in on her.

She needed to get out of there. She needed to go check on Henry.

She drove to her parents' house.

"Where is he?" she asked when she got inside.

"In the guest room," Snow said. "Maybe you should let him be alone for right now. He is pretty shook up."

"Which is why I should go talk to him."

She knocked on the bedroom door before entering. Henry was sitting on the bed staring at a framed picture in his hands. He didn't even acknowledge her as she came in and shut the door behind her.  
She took a seat next to him and he moved over. She saw the picture was of him and Regina when he was just a little kid.

"Henry I'm so sorry," she said.

"No you aren't," he said. "You took me from her. You took me from her and you didn't even care. You let all those people say that stuff about her when it wasn't true. That wasn't who my mother was. That was the Evil Queen, that wasn't my mother. Now my mother is dead. I don't have a mom anymore because you sure aren't someone I will ever call mom again."

"You're angry, I get it. But being angry at me isn't going to help this at all. Regina … she … I never wanted this."

"Then why did you do this? I heard her that day at courthouse. She said she would die if you took me from her. She told you that and you still did it. You might as well have shot her yourself."

Emma stood up knowing she wasn't going to get anywhere with him. "We'll talk later," she said leaving the room.

She went out to the kitchen where her parents were sitting and she took a seat as well.

"He hates me," she said.

"He's upset," Charming said. "He saw her body; it's going to take a while for him to process all of this."

"Did she really shoot herself?" Snow asked.

"It looks like it," Emma said.

"But we won't know for sure until we get the coroner's report," Charming added.

"I can't believe it," Snow said. "I can't believe Regina would do this. She has always been so strong."

Yeah, Emma thought, strong up until the point I put her on trial for being a bad person. She couldn't prove she was a bad mother, so she simply proved she was a bad person.

"I have to check in with the coroner," Emma said. "Do you mind keeping Henry here?"

"Not at all," Snow said.

"Do you want me to come with you?" Charming asked.

"No, I would feel better if you stayed here with Henry. I got this handled."

She left and as she was starting her car, her phone rang – it was Killian. She didn't want to deal with him right now so ignored it. She drove to the morgue and entered to find him standing next to the table where Regina's body was laid out. Since it was a small town, the coroner was only an on-call office. Dr. Randles was actually a private practice physician and the morgue was in a room in back of funeral home. They didn't have many occasions for full autopsies in this town.

She didn't want to see Regina's body again so she stayed back a bit.

"Have you recovered the bullet?"

"Yep," he said holding out a tray with the impacted bullet. He hadn't even washed the blood off of it yet but did so now. She pulled an evidence bag out of her pocket and she had to step closer to the body in order for him to place it inside. She tried to keep her eyes off of Regina, but found she was drawn to looking at her.

"Anything of note yet?"

"Just got started," he said. "I will email over my preliminary results."

"Thanks," she said taking one last look before leaving. There was no reason for her to stick around and she had no desire to be there. She went back to the office and logged in the gun and bullet as evidence and downloaded the pictures from her phone onto her computer and began to go through them and type up her initial report.

She heard someone enter the station and looked up to see Killian approaching. "I tried calling you," he said taking a seat next to her desk.

"I know, but I am busy."

"With Regina's suicide; it's all anyone is talking about around town, how the Evil Queen took a bullet to the side of the head."

"Don't call her that, especially anywhere Henry might here you."

"Yeah, well he will come to see in time that he was better off with you as his mother."

"He doesn't feel that way right now and honestly I am not sure when he will. He is angry at me, angry for taking him away from Regina and you know what he has every right to be. I shouldn't have …"

"Hey you did what was best for the kid," he said putting a comforting hand on hers. "As long as she was in his life there was bound to be trouble."

She pulled her hand away. "No," she said. "I knew taking him away would devastate her and it did."

"This isn't your fault."

"Then why does it feel like it is? I should never have challenged her for custody. I was just … angry. My parents tried to tell me not to do it. Hell, they wouldn't even testify against Regina. What does it say when your own parents don't support you?"

"You did the right thing," he repeated. "You did what you had to do in order to have Henry be safe. You heard the things people testified about, the things she had done. Is that really someone you want around your son? No. Look, this will all blow over. The winds always change, they always do, and once they do Henry will come around and maybe we can start building a life – together."

"Killian, I told you I'm not ready for anything serious and right now I can't even think about such things."

"I know what you said, but think about it please. There is nothing left to keep us apart."

He stood up and kissed her on the check before leaving.

After he was gone she finished labeling all the photos she took and then she went to look at the gun. They didn't have a crime lab, but she had the materials there to take measurements of the bullet to determine what kind it was. She photographed it and took the measurements, but like the gun she knew what kind of bullet it was – it definitely fit the gun as it was the same type of bullet she used. She pulled out her gun and popped out an in tact bullet sitting it down beside the other. It was the same.

The same gun and bullet as hers. Did Regina do this on purpose? Had she gotten a gun that was the exact model as hers and gotten the exact bullet? Was it her way of showing Emma that she blamed her?

She turned her attention to the gun, dusting it for fingerprints. There were fingerprints on it and they appeared to be small like a woman's. She would have to compare them to Regina's. But the odd part was while there were fingerprints on the grip there wasn't any on the trigger.

She went back to her desk and scanned in the fingerprints. She did happen to have Regina's on file as she did all city employees. She ran the comparison program and got up to get some coffee while it worked. She was taking her first sips when the program indicated it was done – a match for one Regina Mills.

She still had questions but couldn't do anything until she saw the coroner's report.

Emma said back in her chair and thought about that night at the hospital when she had confronted Regina after her car wreck where Henry was injured. She had pulled Regina into an empty room to speak to her.

_"What happened?"_

_"A deer ran out in front of us, I swerved to avoid it and hit the tree."_

_"What were you doing out on that stretch of road that late at night?"_

_"Not that it is any of your business, but Henry had been with Robin who has been teaching him about the forest. I went and picked him up."_

_"Teaching him about the forest? Is there anything else I should know about what my son is doing?" she asked putting emphasis on the "my son."_

_"It was an accident," Regina stressed._

_"Yeah well forgive me if I feel safer if Henry went home when he is released."_

_"He is going to be fine; there is no reason for him to go home with you. This is my weekend with him."_

_"He is going home with me. He is clearly safer with me."_

_"Miss Swan need I remind you that I am Henry's legal guardian, not you. We have been sharing time with him because that is what is best for him, and I won't have you questioning my right to be with him."_

_"You are a real piece of work," Emma said._

_"Don't make this about Henry. You are upset with me, so why don't you just say whatever it is that you want to say to me."_

_"The time for talking is well over," Emma said._

_"Only because you refused to talk to me when it would have made a difference. Instead I get weeks of the cold shoulder from you and the moment that pirate upsets you with some notion that you two should be together forever, you show up at my door wanting in my bed. Did you really think I was going to say sure after you walked out on me that morning? After you told me that I should pretend it never happened? Damn it Emma was the idea that we could be together so distasteful to you?"_

_"This isn't about what happened between us. It was a one-night stand. You were the one who tried to make it into more than that. This is about what is best for Henry and right now I think it might be best if he stayed with me for a while."_

_"You aren't taking my son away from me."_

_"We will see about that," she said leaving the room._

That is how it had all started. She had filed the papers the next day to contest the custody and it was a fight Regina never stood a chance in.

The thing was it was never about Henry, not really. Emma was just angry at Regina. Angry that when she was ready to end things with Killian and see if maybe Regina and her could have a future together, Regina had rejected her.

It had all gotten out of control too quickly for Emma to stop it once the custody hearing got underway. She had honestly felt bad for Regina having to sit there and listen to witness after witness rehash the past. She should have stood up and told the judge to stop it. She should have withdrawn her petition, but she hadn't. Instead she got angrier and angrier at Regina as she sat there with her head held high refusing to even look at her. If Regina had just asked her to stop it – but she knew that was ridiculous. She shouldn't have expected something like that. She shouldn't have wished that Regina would come to her and say all was forgiven and given Emma a second chance.

She shook her head, clearing it of things better left alone.

She continued to work until she saw the email message from Dr. Randles pop up. She clicked on it and downloaded the attachment. She began to read the report, skimming it at first to get to the cause of death. He had listed it as undetermined.

"What the hell?" she said and she read the report again more fully before picking up the phone and calling him.

"What do you mean it's undetermined? It has to be suicide or homicide."

"I don't feel comfortable making that decision," he said simply. "I leave it to you to make the final determination for your investigation."

"Come on doc," she said. "You got to give me something. I mean you say right here that it appears the gun was held one to three inches from her head. That usually indicates suicide, right?"

"It can."

"And the GSR, it was negative on her hand. That may mean she didn't fire the gun."

"I can only tell you what I observed," he said. "I don't feel comfortable with interpreting the evidence as one or the other. Perhaps you should make the determination you feel most comfortable with. I leave it in your hands."

"What is this bit about the time of death?"

"She was shot anywhere between 24 and say 32 hours before she was found. She didn't die immediately."

"She was shot in the head."

"Yes, and many people have been shot in the head and survived. I would say the bullet incapacitated her but didn't kill her immediately. She probably died an hour to three or four hours after being shot."

"You mean she just laid there and died. Would she have been conscious? Would she have known what was happening?"

"She could have but there really is no way of knowing."

"Damn it," she cursed after he hung up. How was she supposed to do this? How was she supposed to say which it was?

What had she done? As much as she wanted to believe this wasn't about her, she knew she was the reason Regina was dead in the morgue. She reached into her bottom drawer and into the back where she had put a small bottle of whiskey. She poured some into her now cold coffee and drank it down. She pulled out the letter from Regina and reread it and then read it again. What was Regina going to say to her and why hadn't she finished writing it? There had to be more.

She grabbed her jacket and left.

She pulled into Regina's driveway a few minutes later and let herself in. She went to the office and began to search for more of the letter. After not finding anything she went up to the bedroom. She began looking through the bedroom – going through the bedside table, even looking under the mattress and under the bed. Next she went through the closet. At the very back of the closet where she almost completely overlooked it, she found a metal box. She brought it out and placed it on the bed. It was definitely a lockbox for a gun. She had seen them before. Did this mean that Regina had in fact owned a gun?

She picked it up again and it felt like there was a gun inside still based on the weight. But it was locked and without the combination she wasn't sure how she would get it open.

Emma took the box with her and exited the room. She stopped outside of Henry's room. It was dark by this time at night and she could only see a little bit with the lights off. She thought about how Regina's body had looked lying there.

"My fault," she said softly.

She took the lockbox with her back to the station. She would figure out someway to get it opened later. She took a seat back at her desk and took another drink of whiskey, not bothering with the coffee this time before hiding the bottle back in her desk. Ruby had gotten it for her as a joke one night and she kept meaning to take it out of the office, but it had continued to sit there. Then the night she and Regina had gotten into it she had come back here and taken a drink from it.

_Emma knocked on the door, knowing Regina was home. She had left Henry back at her place, telling him she needed to go into the office for a bit. The truth was, she needed to see Regina. _

_When the brunette opened the door Emma felt the wind rush out of her lungs. She had always thought Regina was beautiful, but now that she knew what she looked like under those clothes the word beautiful had taken on a deeper meaning for her._

_She smiled at Regina, "Can I come in?"_

_Regina didn't say anything just moved out of her way. As soon as the door closed, Emma forced her up against it, kissing her. They kissed like that until Regina forced her back._

_"Miss Swan," Regina warned._

_"What? It's not like you didn't like it," Emma said._

_"That is not the point," Regina said. "You've practically ignored me for weeks and now you show up at my door when you are supposed to be watching our son."_

_"Can we please not fight?" Emma pouted. She moved forward and kissed her again, feeling Regina's resolve begin to slip as the kisses heated up, but again Regina stopped them._

_"I don't want to fight with you," Regina said. "But can you at least tell me why you are here, why now? You told me to forget about what happened that night."_

_Emma groaned, "I know, I know, can't we talk about it later? Right now I really want to take you upstairs to bed. I can't stay long because I have Henry at home."_

_Regina took a step back. "Did you come here just to have sex?"_

_"No, well maybe. Come on Regina, don't act like you don't want this."_

_"I do want this, but I want more than to be some one you hop into bed with when you get the urge."_

_"That's not what this is about. Look things have gotten a little complicated is all. Killian is talking about wanting a relationship with me and I don't want that. I thought maybe you and I could you know pick up where we left off that night."_

_"With the intention of doing what?"_

_"I just want things to be simple," Emma said. "What's wrong with us just being together without having to call it something or defining it?"_

_"Are you still seeing the pirate?"_

_"Yes, but he wants to move things along faster than I want. He is talking about like our future is already pre-ordained. I just need some time to straighten all of that out."_

_"And in the mean time you can come here and see me,"_

_"Exactly," Emma said smiling. "See you understand."_

_"Get out."_

_"What?"_

_"I said leave Miss Swan. I am not going to be your fuck buddy. I thought you understood that you and I we have a connection. I thought … never mind, it doesn't matter. You clearly don't see things the way I do. I need you to leave."_

_"No," Emma said coming closer. "Regina. I am not talking about us being fuck buddies. All I am saying is there is a mutual attraction here and there is no reason why shouldn't explore it. We can see where this goes, but I can't until I deal with this other stuff."  
"Then perhaps you should deal with it first."_

_Emma looked at her knowing any chance she had that night was lost. She exhaled, feeling the residual anger she had felt toward Killian earlier when he was talking about how they could take a two-month cruise down the coast. _

_"Fine," she said walking out and slamming the door behind her._

They had one more fight after that and before the crash when Henry got hurt. She couldn't understand why Regina didn't see that it wasn't just about the sex. Yes, she wanted to have sex with her, but it didn't mean she wasn't open to more. She was only trying to say the more would have to wait. But Regina wouldn't listen and now …

She buried her head in her hands trying to keep the emotions from coming through.

"Damn it Regina, why did you do this?"

She was still at her desk a couple of hours later when her father came in.

"Hey, thought I would check on you. I tried calling but you didn't answer,"

She checked her phone. It was dead. Even as she thought it, she thought of Regina being dead on the floor.

"It needs charged," she said.

"Why don't you go home and charge it and get some rest?"

"I should finish my report."

"Did you get the coroner's report?"

"Yes,"

"And?"

"And Dr. Randles didn't feel comfortable giving a ruling and has left it up to me."  
"What? Why wouldn't he?"

"I don't know. The evidence he collected could go either way."

"And what do you think?"

She paused, knowing it fell on her shoulders now. Regina's death fell on her shoulders. She didn't pull the trigger, but she might as well have.

"Suicide."

"Are you sure? Because if you aren't sure, I can help you go through the evidence again."

"No, it's ok. Her fingerprints were the only ones on the gun. Coroner's report states the gun was no more than three inches from her head at the time of the shooting. Clearly she had been upset over recent events and … I'm just going to finish my report, it's not long and then I will head home. I will um pick Henry up in the morning."

"Ok," he said. "Call me if you need anything."  
"I will."

He left and she typed up her report. It was only a half a page. She would attach the coroner's report and Henry's statement to it later. She picked up the lockbox and her whiskey and she went home. She sat on her couch for the longest time, drinking and staring at that box, wondering about the gun she was now sure was inside. Why would Regina have a gun? Why would the woman who could use magic so adeptly need a gun?

Finally, she dragged herself to her room and fell on the bed, letting the world spin around her as she closed her eyes and slept.

Emma woke, sitting up in bed.

"Are you ok?"

She turned to see her future counterpart there at the bedside. It took her a moment to get her bearings and she rushed out of bed to the bathroom where she puked up the little residue that was in her stomach. She felt disoriented, like there was something not quite real about all of this – the thoughts and feelings of that alternate timeline Emma were still sticking to her like chocolate on a strawberry.

"Are you ok?" future Emma asked again.

"Yeah," she said taking a seat on the bathroom floor. "Was I gone for the full 12 hours?"

"Yes. Was it enough? Did you find out what happened?"

"Regina was murdered."


	18. Chapter 18

A/N: This chapter starts out in the 12 hour time gap while present Emma is asleep. Then moves back to the regular time from where the last chapter let off.

Also, to the guest reviewer who had been on my tumblr page and asked if I am not shipping OQ, the answer is no. However, if I was I would hope no one would have a problem that. I have no use for nor time for ship wars. Most likely what you saw on my tumblr was me reblogging something because the focus was on Regina and because of the way the show has played out some of her emotions weren't able to be highlighted as much until OQ was introduced. I have no problem with OQ shippers. I think Robin Hood is quite handsome, but don't expect any OQ stories from me. Hope that clears up the question. Now onto the story.

* * *

Future Emma watched as her younger self fell asleep under the power of the potion. She could admit she was a little worried about the outcome, but Emma needed to see how important Regina was to her.

She had taken the potion around 10:30 p.m. in order keep most of her time in a normal sleep schedule. Of course future Emma knew that was also done in order to keep her future self from being out and about during the day as her.

Her younger self thought she was clever, and she couldn't help but try and remember if she was that way just few short years ago. She knew she had been, and she knew she had made mistakes because of it.

Pulling out her phone she called Regina.

"Hello Emma."

"I am really glad you didn't say Miss Swan there."

"Do I ever call you Miss Swan in the future?"

"Only when you are really, really mad at me, which I assure you is not that often."

"Forgive me if I am not sure I quite believe you."

"Well, I tell you what I happen to have the opportunity and freedom right now to come over if you don't mind a late night visitor."

There was a pause and Emma sent up a prayer that the answer would be yes.

"Wait until close to midnight, I want to make sure Henry is asleep and doesn't know you are here."

"See you then."

Emma hung up the phone and did a little dancing twirl in celebration. She had hours before her younger self woke and she planned on spending as many of those as possible with Regina.

…

She sent Regina a text when she was at the back door. When Regina opened the door Emma swept in and kissed her. She knew Regina's rule, and knew she was likely in for some sort of lecture, but she didn't care. She wanted her wife.

Regina kissed her back before pulling away. "Miss Swan."

"Sorry," she smiled, even though she was anything but sorry. "You have no idea how utterly irresistible you are do you?"

"You make me sound like a drug," Regina said trying to maintain some composure even if she was flattered by the comment.  
"You are my drug,"

"Shut the door will you," Regina walking away.

They exited the kitchen and Regina led her to the study and immediately put up a spell to keep sound from leaving the room she explained to Emma.

"You did that on our honeymoon and I am pretty sure the neighbors could still hear us," Emma said.

It took Regina a moment to say anything, "I don't know about that but I do know I don't want Henry wandering down here and hearing us talking in here. Now where is Emma, my Emma? I doubt she would just let you causally come here."

"She is working the over night shift at the station tonight, so here I am."

"And you aren't worried she will pop back home and check on you?"

"Nah, plus I am willing to risk it in order to see you."

Regina was sure she was blushing again, or maybe she was still blushing from the kiss. She couldn't help but marvel at the ease with which this Emma spoke to and flirted with her. It was like night and day to the present Emma. She could see falling for this charming version of the blonde-haired sheriff but knew she couldn't. Still, she could admit it was tempting.

She was also worried about what happened if she couldn't get her Emma to see that they could have a relationship.

"Where did you go?" Emma asked stepping closer to her.

"Huh? Um, no where, I was just thinking."

"About me?"

"Maybe," Regina conceded.

"I think you were," Emma said moving even closer so that they were inches apart. She snaked her arm around Regina and pulled their bodies together. "I think you think about me all the time."

Again they were kissing and as much as Regina felt like she should fight the urge she kept kissing her back.

"Wait," Regina said escaping from her arms. "We talked about this."

"I know, but you can't expect me to look at you and not want this. You and I were destined for each other. I believe that."

"I'd like to believe that," Regina sighed taking a seat on the settee. "I would like to believe that the Emma of this time could be like you and that we could have a marriage and have that little girl Alexandra, but I have to say that I don't see it happening. Emma and I, we don't … it's not the same. She doesn't look at me like you do."

"I know," Emma conceded. "It's not like I haven't thought about that. I have and I've actually thought of a solution."

"What's that?"

Emma smiled and knelt down in front of her, putting her hands on Regina's knees. "Keep an open mind and at least consider it. If we can't get this Emma moving in the right direction, then I say fuck it. Let's find a magical way to keep me here. Keep me in this timeline and then you and I can have the life we were meant to have. No, don't answer, don't comment, just think about it. You and me together, every day. We could kiss and hug and no one could stop us. Are there complications? Yes there are, but we can figure it out as long as we are together."

Regina looked down at Emma and saw in her eyes that she did indeed want this. She wanted to be with Regina more than anything. It struck her again how this Emma was so different than the Emma of this time.

"Um, I still think we should um try, you know with me and my Emma, but um… yes, if that isn't going to work I will find a way to keep you here."

"Fantastic," Emma said moving up and kissing her.

….

Emma chowed down on the food that future Emma had waiting for her when she woke. She was starving after having laid there for 12 hours in bed. The cheeseburger had little taste for her however.

"What happened? What did you see?" future Emma asked her.

"Everything," Emma said between bites. "Everything she saw, I saw. It was like Gold said I could see it, feel it but I couldn't do anything about it."

"Ok, well tell me what you saw, you said Regina was murdered. How do you know that?"

"The evidence," she said taking another bite.

"Can you stop eating or chew faster?" future Emma, who was now pacing next to the table, asked.

"Forgive me if my empty stomach is an inconvenience to you. Why don't you tell me what has happened here in the past 12 hours while I eat?"

Future Emma sat down in a huff. "Nothing happened. It's been 12 hours of pretty much nothing. I answered a domestic call with dad at like 5 a.m. but that is about it. And no, he didn't look at me strange or think I was anyone but you."

"What about Regina, have you heard from her in the past 12 hours?"

"No, and neither have you," she said, sliding Emma's phone across the table to her. "The last 12 hours have been about as quiet as they have ever been in this town."

Emma finished the last of her cheeseburger and while she was still hungry she didn't want to eat the fries after getting no satisfaction from the burger. She pushed the plate away from her.

She gave her counterpart the quick rundown on what had happened. Her future self sat there and listened, asking only a couple of questions.

"You slept with Regina in that time line?"

"I apparently did, and then turned around and was a complete ass about it."

"It sounds like it,"

"I am beginning to wonder if there is a time line besides this one where I haven't slept with Regina," Emma said laying her head in her hands.

"You make it sound like it's a bad thing."

"And you make it sound like it's the only thing," she shot back.

"I don't want to fight with you about this – again," future Emma said. "Perhaps we can get back to concentrating on the issue at hand and tell me more about what you experienced."

"Here is the problem with this astral projection stuff, while I was in her mind, I didn't have access to her memories or anything like that. The only reason I knew she slept with Regina was because she was actively thinking about it," younger Emma explained. "If she hadn't have been thinking about it then I wouldn't have known. Maybe if I had access to the rest of it, I might have been able to know more, know what she was really thinking when she decided to take Henry away from Regina. Know … other things."

She paused considering a few things before speaking again. "When she saw Regina on the floor she tried to keep it all together in her mind – you know look at it all like you would look at it if you didn't know her, as if it was a stranger there on the floor. Then it started to unravel. It was weird. I was only in her mind for those 12 hours yet if I hadn't known I was in the mind of just her I could almost swear it was a different person by the end."

"Why do you say that?"

"It's hard to explain. I just think she lost it. I am no psychologist, but I think she started going crazy almost immediately, and I think I know where her drinking problem started as she was drinking in the sheriff's station that night."

Future Emma began to pace again. "You said you thought you might have covered it up – the murder I mean, if you did, who were you protecting?"

"Be careful with your pronouns. I had nothing to do with this. I don't know that she was actively protecting anyone. She feels totally responsible for Regina being dead, whether from murder or suicide, she feels it is her fault."

"Maybe it was. Maybe the realization that she treated Regina like complete shit was the problem.

Emma considered her future counterpart a moment before speaking. "This version of us that I was in, she kept that report simple for a reason, and I think that reason was because she didn't want anyone delving into deeply as to what Regina had been doing – mainly her. Regina was dead and she was still afraid people would find out she had sex with her. Now I have my faults and I am ready to admit that, but if I had sex with Regina I am not going to be a coward and hide it."

She stared down her future counterpart. She had just about enough of all of this. Her future self broke off the look first.

"Well we still need to figure out what happened to ensure it doesn't happen again."

"Yes we do," young Emma said.

…

It was late that night – nearly midnight when Regina's phone beeped. She had had breakfast with future Emma that morning – after she dropped Henry off at school. Emma came back over and Regina had cooked her breakfast.

She hadn't said how she managed to get out from under her younger self's watch in order to have breakfast. When her phone beeped she expected it to be her which is why she looked at strangely when she saw who it was. She got out of bed and put on a robe, quietly going downstairs. She opened the back door.

Emma, the younger one, came in the moment the door is open. "We need to talk."

"And you couldn't have picked a daylight hour to do that?"

"Cut me some slack," Emma said. "You got anything to drink?"

"Why do I suspect you aren't asking for milk?" Regina said as she saw the look Emma gave her. "This way."

She led her back to the study and poured them both a drink – whiskey. Not normally Regina's style but she felt like this wasn't going to be a pleasant conversation. Emma drank down half of her glass immediately.

"I need to ask you something – something personal."

Regina was immediately put on edge and took a bigger drink of her whiskey.

"Do you have any desire to have sex with me?"

Regina drank down the rest of her glass and went back to refill her glass. Emma, whom she hadn't even see move, was suddenly there beside her grabbing her wrist.

"Do you have any desire to have sex with me?"

"Um … maybe."

"Did you ever think about having sex with me before future me came here?"

Regina looked at her questioningly, but she took a step back. "Why are you asking me this?"

Emma sighed and refilled both of their glasses. "We have a problem."

She took a seat on the chair, leaning forward in the chair, her hands cupping the glass. Regina continued to stand, studying the other woman who didn't look tired despite the late hour but appeared tired in another way.

"What's wrong?" Regina finally asked taking her own seat.

"Have you ever done astral projection?"

"I have not. I am familiar with it however."

"Late last night I took a potion that Gold prepared and then 12 hours in my future self's mind to see if I could make heads or tails over all of this stuff."

She paused and Regina could tell as Emma took a sip of her drink that this was not an easy subject for her to talk about. She didn't say anything, figuring Emma would speak up when she was ready to do so.

"The whole idea was not that I was in my future self as you know her, but an alternate time line future me in order to look into your death."

"The shooting?"

"Yes. You see I had this theory that the reason my future self came back here to this time was somehow connected. That despite her saying she had Gold help her cast a spell to get her time line fixed that maybe it sent her back here to fix my time line."

"And did this trip to the future confirm that theory?"

"No," Emma said. "Which is why we have a problem. Future Emma, the one who has been here, I think she's playing both of us for fools."


	19. Chapter 19

A/N: Thanks for all the wonderful reviews. I hope I blew your minds a little with the last chapter and I promise the roller coaster ride isn't over yet. This chapter picks up where the other one left off.

"How do you mean?" Regina asked.

Emma got up and paced. She stopped suddenly thinking of how her future self was doing that earlier in the apartment. She didn't want any comparisons between the two of them so she sat back down.

"My history isn't a secret to you," Emma said. "I was a thief, but part of me being a thief was being a con artist. First thing you do is pick your mark and then you find some weakness to exploit to get what you want but you do it in a way that makes the mark believe it is their idea."

"I assume in this scenario, I am the mark."

"You are."

"Enlighten me then Miss Swan, why would your future self go through the trouble of coming back through time to con me? What could she possibly want?"

Emma exhaled. This was the step that there was no coming back from. "You Regina. She wants you."

She waited for some reaction from Regina, but the brunette continued to sit there staring at her. Emma started to laugh and then took another drink, "Of course. You already know this. She told you, did she?"

"She has certainly told me more than you have bothered to."

"Oh God, she got to you didn't she? She actually has you believing her story."

"Miss Swan, I assure you that no one has got to me. The only that is getting to me is my annoyance over you at this moment. If you have nothing further to say, why don't you do us both the favor of leaving."

"Damn, she is good," Emma said. "I mean once I figured out what she was doing I thought, she had some balls attempting to con me but the fact she has you believing her lies this quickly is almost masterful."

"Miss Swan!"

"Sorry, sorry," she said. "Would you hear me out at least?"

"If you can get to the point in a timely manner."

"Timely I am not sure I can do. This is more than a little complicated. Feel free to stop me if I do end up saying something you haven't heard from her already. Here is what we thought we knew. Future Emma comes back to this time where she blames me for ruining her happy life because of me bringing Marian here. In this future she says that she is married to you. Then she says she wakes up in this alternate timeline where she no longer lives in Storybrooke, isn't married to you, Henry hates her and you are dead. She says she makes a deal with Gold to come back here to figure out what went wrong and she immediately targets on the Marian thing. She tells me this whole story about how it was going out with Robin that made her see you as someone she wanted to have a relationship with but now Robin is out of the picture because of Marian and so you two never have that relationship in what she says is this alternate timeline."

Regina sighed, "Can you get to the part where you believe she is a con artist extraordinaire?"

"I'm getting there. Look everything she had done since getting here has been in someway directed at getting to you. She came to see you first; she has been sneaking around to see you apparently. I assume she told you that we are married in the future."

Regina looked away, "And that we have a daughter."

"Yeah, Alex,"

"Alexandra."

Emma caught a sadness in Regina's eyes in that instant. She paused before speaking again. "This future it seems a little too good to be true and frankly the way you and I are with each other I don't see. I have told her as much but she keeps insisting on it. Enter my theory that this alternate future she says she ended up in may actually be my real future. I don't want a future where Henry hates me and then there is your death. So I think maybe if I can get a glimpse of it there will be something there to tell me if that is indeed the future path we are on."

"Wait," Regina said. "What were you hoping to see in this future that would prove anything to you?"

"I was hoping to prove your death wasn't a suicide."

"Excuse me? I thought you and future Emma said I was shot and killed."

"You were and I ruled a suicide."

"Clearly something is amiss because I sure wouldn't kill myself. I would never … I wouldn't do that to Henry."

"In this future I, well it seemed like you did it because of Henry. You see in this timeline, I ended up fighting you for custody of Henry and you lost. It was a little more complicated than that but that was the result and then you were dead, shot in the head."

"What do you mean by more complicated than that?"

"It's not really integral to the story."

"Let me be the judge to that."

Emma exhaled. "The custody hearing was a like a character hearing about you and people here they testified against you, said things about what you were like before in the Enchanted Forest."

"I see. They got their chance to take shots at the Evil Queen and they took it. I can't say I blame them and now I can see how you got custody of Henry. Is there anything else that you are leaving out?"

Emma looked at the floor.

"Just tell me. It couldn't possibly get any worse."

"You and I slept together. It was after I brought back Marian. I came to check on you and we were arguing and then we had sex. Then things went badly because I was a jerk about the whole thing and then it snowballed from there leading to me challenging you for custody. Then, then you were dead."

Silence permeated the room and Emma wondered what Regina was thinking.

"Anyway, when I went though the astral projection I was hoping to see if you had killed yourself or if it was murder because the time when it happened is coming up soon and I thought if it was murder maybe there was something back here in our time that would prevent it from happening and thus prevent that future. It would fix things and maybe future Emma would see this isn't the timeline she was supposed to be fixing to get her life back."

"This is why you were asking me if I had a gun."

"Yes, you see future Emma claimed she had seen the police report which had some details and the whole story didn't seem right to me. The police report was a poor job and I couldn't imagine myself doing such half-assed work. The gun used to kill you is the same kind of gun you owned, and the same kind of gun I own."

"So which one was used?"

"Neither."

"But you just said."

"I said it was the same kind. These guns were standard issue when I got here but remember I upgraded. You got yours from Graham as did I. But when I ordered more for the department I kept mine and I didn't know about yours. In my future glimpse, my future self found your lockbox in the closet and while she couldn't open it, it was heavy like there was still a gun inside. I thought first thing in the morning I would see where those other guns went. I know they were turned over for the village surplus auction but I don't know who bought them. I figure there has to a record of who purchased them."

"There would be but it's not needed. One person bought all the stuff at the last auction except for the cars. Mr. Gold."

"He has the guns?"

"He either has them or he has sold them off by now. It's hard to say. There are no shortages of people in this town who would love to see me dead as your story proves so that's it then, I am to be murdered sometime here in the near future and somehow it gets ruled a suicide. How exactly does this prove that future Emma is playing us?"

Emma stood and started to pace. She couldn't help it. She thought better on her feet. "First off, you are not going to be murdered. I won't let that happen, even if I have to track down all those guns and confiscate them. Secondly, it was ruled a suicide by me in this future even though she knew it wasn't. She knew it wasn't and she did it anyway."

"Why?"

"Guilt. She felt guilty about your death. She felt like if she hadn't done the things she had done you would be alive. It didn't matter to her if you killed yourself or if someone else did. She felt like she pulled the trigger."

"That still doesn't prove anything about the future Emma that is here now. Why are you so sure that she isn't being sincere? Does the idea of us being together offend you that much?"

"What offends me is that someone is fucking with us," Emma said. "I would have thought that would offend you too. Or do you really find her to be that charming?"

"I find her far more agreeable than you at the moment."

"I bet," Emma responded. "Look I was in the mind of that Emma for 12 hours and do you want to know what I discovered? I discovered that she cared for you. She had feelings for you and she didn't get the chance to see what might develop from those feelings because she was a complete idiot. And then you died and any chance she may have had to make it right with you died with you. She snapped Regina. In a matter of hours her mind went from upset to full-blown fucking crazy. I should know I was in it. I am telling you by the end of my time in her mind she was convinced she had stood beside you in that room and shot you through the head."

"How do you know she didn't?"

"Because I knew anything she saw, smelt, touched, whatever while I was in there including any thoughts she was having. She didn't kill you. She was too upset that she lost out on the future she thought she should have had with you. A future I think over the years that followed she convinced herself she did have with you, until one day she figured out a way to get back here and actually try and have it."

"You're saying future Emma is the Emma from this future timeline. That the one she talks about is all in her head? That is a hell of a leap in logic."

"Let's look at what she's done since she has been here again. She has lied to me repeatedly; lied to you in that she hasn't mentioned the suicide either. She has been almost obsessive about you."

Regina didn't want to admit that Emma may have a point, but future Emma herself had described Regina as being like a drug.

"For argument's sake, let's say your new theory is right and she is this Emma. Then I still fail to see how she is playing the both of us when if what she wants is me, why was she encouraging me to flirt with you? She wanted her future back, she was quite clear on that and she felt the only way that would happen was if you and I got together."

"Like I said, she is a con artist. The real question is what has she asked you for?"

"All she has asked me for pertains to getting you and me together."

Emma wasn't sure Regina was telling the exact truth but her lie detector didn't go off. "Con artists are very good at getting what they want by convincing the other person that it's what they want, that it is there idea. Are you sure she hasn't hinted at anything, a plan of some sort that would allow her to get this future she wants?"

She thought about how future Emma asked her to find a way to stay here in this time so they could be together. She had asked for something.

"Maybe a better question is if you are right, what do we do about it? Or do we have to do anything at all?"

"Of course we do. If she is as messed up in the head as I think she is, she is a danger to you, to me, to herself and to Henry."

It was the first thing that made sense to Regina – she couldn't let any harm come to Henry. Still she wasn't sure that Emma was right about the other Emma.

"That magic that brought her here; it isn't permanent. She will return to whatever future she belongs in."

"Yes and she has been vague on when that expires. Has she told you?"

"No, but I do not believe she is lying about it."

"There is no real way to tell if she is."

"No there isn't," Regina conceded. She needed time to think all of this through. She wasn't ready to dismiss future Emma yet, despite the present Emma's reservations. She told Emma she would think over what she said and then she escorted her to the door.

Emma got into her car and pulled away, hoping Regina would see that she was telling the truth. She was preoccupied with the thoughts swirling in her head she failed to notice the person who was standing outside, watching Regina's house.


	20. Chapter 20

A/N: Thanks for the reviews, I appreciate them. A note on this chapter. I actually had this one written longer but I split it. In part I did this to end on one cliffhanger and the save the other for the next chapter (because you know I love cliffhangers). Then I thought just post the whole thing, but I wanted to tweak the second part so I ended up splitting them. The good news is you will have another chapter posted tomorrow

Emma got home and found her counterpart was still up. She was sitting on the couch either watching the television or pretending to watch. Emma suddenly didn't want the woman there in her place. She knew it was irrational to think but she felt like the woman could read her mind at times. Future Emma gave her a smile, "Headed to bed?"

"Yeah," she said. "Are you?"

"Nah, think I will stay up for a bit. I don't sleep much."

Probably from your guilty conscious, Emma thought. She didn't say anything, just went to her room. She sat on the bed hoping that this would soon all be over. She felt like her life was no longer hers to control. She kept trying to shake the feeling of being in the other Emma's head. That Emma had gone crazy of that she was sure. If it was possible to observe a mind breaking, Emma had felt it happening from the inside.

If she was being honest with herself, it scared her. If that could happen to some future version of her, what prevented it from happening to her?

The idea that it was all caused by Regina's death was another layer to it. Henry would be devastated if Regina died, and Emma would of course be affected because of their son. But how would she feel without that?

Regina and her were simply – complicated.

There was no other way to describe it. Regina could be a real infuriating bitch at times. Then there were times when Emma could see that Regina wanted to do the right thing, be a better person and Emma liked that Regina didn't merely give into be the Evil Queen everyone in town feared. It could have happened after she brought Marian back – she saw first hand how Regina had stood there in Granny's in disbelief over Robin hugging his wife.

Regina didn't give in or lash out though.

Regina was a complicated person. It would be easy to write her off as one thing or another, but she had to many layers for someone to describe her in simple terms.

Even now Emma wasn't sure she could do that.

That other Emma, she clearly didn't understand Regina fully either or she wouldn't have been stupid enough to suggest they keep sleeping together why she was seeing Hook still, Emma thought. She was sure she was smarter than that, not that she had any plans of sleeping with Regina at all, her mind amended.

But the other Emma had.

She thought about the letter that Regina had written that other Emma. She was sure she could recite it word for word. The other Emma had read it enough times that she too had memorized it and it was more than words to that Emma.

_Now that I am left with nothing I find myself here again thinking about the what ifs. What if you hadn't left that morning like you did? What if you had just talked to me? What if you had accepted that it wasn't a one-night stand? What if you had kissed me first? _

That Emma had taken those words to her heart and mind. What if. What if she had accepted it wasn't a one-night stand? Perhaps if she had then she and that Regina would have gotten together and built a life together. Instead that Emma began constructing that life in her head.

Now she was certain that the Emma out there on her couch was that Emma. It was the only thing that made logical sense to her as much as anything could. One of her original questions had been why did that Emma retain her so called original memories if the timeline had been changed? Shouldn't she had forgotten those memories like everyone else would have? The answer had to be that there were no real memories of a life with Regina. She had made it up, or worse she honestly believed that she and Regina were married. Either way it made her dangerous.

She hadn't trusted her from the beginning, but now she felt like she needed to be wary of her. If she was that determined to get Regina then she wasn't going to let anything stop her. Her only solace was that she knew that Emma hadn't killed Regina. There was no way of hiding those thoughts when she saw Regina's body lying there. She had been consumed by her grief like a matchstick that burns bright but only for a short time before its tip turns black.

And while that Emma had kept those sentences from the letter in her mind that posed the question what if, Emma herself couldn't help but wonder more about that last sentence

_I need to tell you that…_

What was Regina going to say? And why didn't she get the chance to finish saying it?

….

Regina drove Henry to school, ignoring her phone as it vibrated. She had already gotten a text from Future Emma that morning and chose not to respond. She had slept poorly – spending most of her night thinking about Future Emma and if she was indeed the con artist that present Emma was making her out to be.

She needed that time to think last night and realize she was being too passive. It wasn't like her to sit on the sidelines and let others dictate the world around her. And she was done doing it in this situation.

She let Henry off school and proceeded to drive not to her office, but instead to Gold's shop. As loathe as she was to deal with the imp, he did have some answers she needed.

After parking her car, she checked her phone – both Emmas had called her. She shook her head – they were going to have to wait. She entered the store.

"Regina," Gold said, clearly not expecting her nor wanting her to be there.

"I have a problem," she said.

"And that means you automatically have to come to me?"

"When it involves magic yes. I have an Emma Swan problem, two to be exact."

"I have met the other one," he said. "She has information I would like to have."

"I bet she does and I might be willing to help you get that information, but I need some assistance first."

"And what makes your issue so important?"

"Look, you can help me or not. I have other resources but I honestly don't feel like going through a ton of books when I have a simpler resource right here. Besides if you are wanting information from future Emma then you have a stake in all of this too. Frankly, I don't care what it is, but if it gets me what I want then I don't care."

"What do you need my dearie?"

"Two things. First off, since you know that future Emma is here, you must have given some thought to how she got back here and how long she may have back in this time."

Regina watched as Gold walked behind the counter, making a show out of thinking it through. Regina knew better. She knew Gold was trying to think two steps ahead of her and why she wanted the information.

"She said we made a deal in the future as she needed my assistance to get back. Presumably that involved the time portal your sister built."

"I came up with that theory on my own but it doesn't explain why she would only be here for a limited time. She has been clear on that matter and I do believe her that she has limited time here."

"She says she wants to fix the future. Tell me Regina are you opposed to this?"

"Not at all," she said.

"I suppose you wouldn't be?"

"And what do you mean by that?"

"Your murder or suicide or whatever. But in the timeline the girls wanted to see the other day with my help dealt with your death. I assume that is your motivation."

"It is. It begs the question of what yours is."

"Self-preservation as always my dearie."

Neither trusted the other but Regina was tired of this side-stepping. She started to think of why he would be doing it.

"You have no idea how she got back here, do you?" she said, a slight smile gracing her face. When Gold failed to make immediate eye contact with her, she knew she was right. So it wasn't just her that couldn't figure it out.

"You know as well as I do that time travel isn't exactly standard magic. If nothing else Zelena proved it takes dark magic."

"Which explains why Emma would need your help in the future; her magic being light magic after all."

"Correct, but for me to have sent her back here, it would suggest I acquired knowledge of time travel in the years that follow this one. It would mean finding a less aggressive way than the way Zelena did it. I still keep coming back to the portal. It must be connected to it somehow."

Connected yes, but how, she didn't know and clearly Gold didn't either.

"One last question and then you can tell me what information you want from future Emma and I will do my best to get it."

"Ask."

"You bought a set of guns at the last village auction. Do you still have them? And if you don't, where are they?"

"That is technically two questions," he said. "Wait here, let me check my inventory list."

She turned as the door behind her opened. Great, she thought, and my problem follows me now.

"What are you doing here?" present Emma asked.

"I am doing your job," she said. Emma gave her a confused look. "The guns. Gold is checking his inventory now."

"Oh, yeah, that is what I am doing here."

"Where is your other self?"

"I don't know. She snuck out when I was in the shower this morning. I half expected her to be with you."

"Sorry to disappoint," she said turning from her.

"You may not want to believe, it but I don't want to see you get hurt in all of this," Emma said putting her hand on Regina's arm to stop her. Regina looked down at that hand before looking Emma in the eyes.

"I appreciate that."

"Does that mean you believe me about her?"

"It means I am willing to entertain the possibility yes. After all, the idea of you going crazy doesn't seem that far fetched. I always thought you were a little unbalanced."

"And there is the Regina I know," Emma smiled.

Something about Emma saying that made Regina smile. Yes, she had been too passive in all of this. Gold came out a moment later and he looked at Emma and then to Regina.

"Do you have them?" Regina asked.

"I have one."

"Where are the other three?" Emma asked.

"They were purchased," Gold said.

"By whom?"

"Regina," Gold said turning to her. "I will call you later about that other matter we were discussing. Here is the information you requested."

He slid her three papers and then went back into the back of his shop. Regina took the papers that she recognized as purchase orders and walked out with Emma on her heels.

"Who bought them?" she asked as soon as they were outside.

"Hook," Regina said.  
"What!" Emma said grabbing the papers from her.

"No, not there, there, across the street," Regina said.

Emma looked over and saw Hook was leaning against a building across from Gold's shop.

"You best go talk with your boyfriend. He doesn't look too happy," Regina said taking back the papers.

Emma looked from Hook to Regina. "Yeah, well, I want to know who bought those guns."

"Stop by my office later," Regina said walking to her car. She noticed Hook wasn't watching Emma walk across the street to him. His eyes were on her as she got into her car.

…

"Killian, what are you doing out here?" she asked.

"I was going to ask you the same thing. What are you doing in that crocodile's shop and why were you with Regina?"

"I wasn't with Regina. She happened to be there at Gold's when I got there."

"And what were you doing there?"

"It's a case, I am working on. I am trying to track down some guns that were originally owned by the village."

He looked at her doubtfully and then reached out and pulled her closer. "I don't like you dealing with anything that concerns him or her. You need to stay away from both of them."

Emma backed away from him, not liking his forcefulness. "It's a case. Gold had information I needed."

"Is this case the reason I have barely seen you these last couple of days or why you ignored my calls the other night."

"What calls?"

"I called you two nights ago a few times and you never picked up."

Future Emma, she thought. Why wasn't she surprised she would do something like this.

"I didn't know you called, honest. There must be something wrong with my phone," she lied.

"And last night?"  
"What about last night?"

"I thought I would stop by. I got to your place and your car was gone. Where were you?"

"I got sent out by dispatch to a burglary. It was no big deal."

She didn't like lying to him but she didn't know what else to do. She couldn't very well tell him the truth. "Look I got to get into the station," she said. "Let's have dinner tonight, ok?"

He nodded yes and then bent down to kiss her. She kept the kiss short; she needed to find out who bought those guns.

She walked across the street to get to her car and as soon as she put it in gear she was dialing Regina.

"Is your boyfriend drama over?" Regina asked.

"Funny. Who bought the guns?"

"Oh you are going to love this. One was purchased a couple of days after the auction by Dr. Whale. Another was purchased by Jefferson and this last guy I don't even know how I wronged, but he owns the hardware store in town. The name in this land is Lewis Broughton."

"Fuck," Emma swore.

"Exactly. Two of these people would gladly see me dead."

"I told you I am not going to let that happen."

"I guess you will get your chance to prove it Savior."

….

It was mid-afternoon when her secretary let her know that Sheriff Swan was there to see her. She hadn't spoken to Emma since that morning when Emma said she was going to retrieve those guns if she had to point her own gun at the people to get them. Regina had to applaud her zeal if not her actual plan.

When she had read the names on the purchase order she had gotten sick. Jefferson and Whale – both would love to see her dead and she found that she couldn't fault them for it. She had screwed both men over.

The idea that she would let either man close enough to shoot her though was another matter. She had been thinking about that – why wouldn't she use magic to stop someone who was going to kill her. In this future time could she be that distraught over losing Henry that she let someone kill her.

No, she thought, it wasn't possible.

"Let her in," she told her secretary. The door opened and she was about to ask Emma how the retrieval of the guns was going when she realized this was future Emma coming toward her desk. She had shut the door behind and if she wasn't mistaken, she had locked it as well.

"Hello beautiful," Emma said and before Regina could say anything Emma was coming behind the desk, and was kissing her. Regina's mind told her to make the woman maintain her distance. That wasn't the part of her mind she listened to as she kissed back.

She couldn't help but be in awe how easy this Emma made their interactions seem. Her logical mind caught up with her and she stopped kissing her.

"It's not really appropriate for the office," she said.

"Really?" Emma said taking a seat on a chair in front of the desk. "I've got news for you, we've had sex in here plenty of times."

"Is that a fact?" Regina asked doubtfully. It certainly didn't seem like something she would do and this might be the opening she needed to get this Emma talking about the future.

"Yes," Emma said. "I could show you right now."

"Thank you, but no. You see why I have a hard time with the idea of us being intimate here of all places. What's wrong with our bed at home?"

"Privacy," Emma said without missing a beat. "We have a young child."

"Alexandra," Regina said. She loved that name.

"Yes, well, maybe you weren't getting a lot of action when Henry was growing up, but trust me if you were, you would learn the meaning of interrupted."

"And our answer is to have sex here?"

"Or anywhere we can grab some time. We've done it my office, why not yours?"

If this Emma was a con artist she was very good Regina thought, as she didn't miss a beat in throwing a response back. She could see that trait in the present day Emma when they had verbally assaulted each other.

"If I ask you something, will you promise me you will tell me the truth?" Regina asked.

"Of course," Emma said sitting forward in her chair. "I would hope you know that I will always be truthful with you."

Regina was almost caught off guard by how sincere Emma seemed to be.

"It's not that I want to doubt you, please don't think that. But seeing how I am with this Emma it's hard to believe that you and I will ever be together. I was hoping you could provide me with some sort of proof."

Emma sat back in the chair and then got up. She walked over to Regina and leaned on the desk beside her, looking down at her.

"I would like to say that the only proof I could give you is the love I feel for you, the love I know you see because you're sitting there and you are looking at me and I am looking at you, and you have to see it. You have to feel it," she said. "I'd like to say that and you just be able to accept it. But I know how your mind works. I know you've been betrayed by those you have cared about so it's not in your nature to accept things at face value. I wish you would in this case. There is proof I could offer you, but I am hesitant to offer it up to you and the only reason I say that is because of the affect, the emotional affect, it could have on you. You see there is one item that for whatever reason stayed with me when my timeline shifted. I like to think it stayed with me because of you."

"What is it?"

Emma sighed and stepped to the window behind Regina and looking out it. It forced Regina to turn around in her chair to keep an eye on her.

"You need to understand that when you gave this to me, it meant the world to me. You admitted you were reluctant to do so because you were worried I might misinterpret what you meant by giving it to me. But I understood. I understood that in giving it to me you were ready to let go of the past and join me in the future we had planned."

She was still facing the window, but Regina saw her take something from her pocket. She turned back to Regina and held her clenched fist out to her before slowly opening it.

Regina could only stare in disbelief before taking the item with her own hand. She knew this like she knew her own skin. She looked up at Emma.

"I gave you Daniel's ring."

"Yes," Emma said. "It's the only proof I can offer. I hope it is enough."


	21. Chapter 21

A/N: I am completely overjoyed that you all have been joining me on this little adventure. Here is the promised chapter. Enjoy.

It had already been a long day when she got the phone call from Regina. She expected the other woman merely wanted to ask her how she was progressing in getting the guns back, but something in Regina's voice told her that wasn't the case when Regina asked her to come to her office.

It was already after five and she was supposed to meet Hook at 7 p.m. for dinner, but she knew Regina wouldn't be asking if it wasn't important. Regina left the outside door open for her – something she planned on lecturing her about as you never leave a door like that unlocked after hours especially if you were due to be killed soon. She walked in and found Regina standing by the window behind her desk looking out of it.

Regina hadn't seemed to notice her so she cleared her throat. Regina turned toward her. "Miss Swan, thanks for coming."

"Sure," she said approaching cautiously. There was something not right about this. Something in the way Regina was holding herself. Her shoulders seemed to be lower than normal as if she was giving in under some weight. It was the strong, straight posture that Emma was used to seeing from her.

She took a seat but Regina made no move to sit or to speak.

"I made progress with the guns," Emma said. No reaction. "Yeah, I um I got Dr. Whale's mostly because he hadn't registered it and I threatened to arrest him and honestly I think he only turned it over because he had a date tonight that he didn't want to miss."

"Jefferson's was a little harder to get. His wasn't registered either, but he didn't seem to care about that. I asked him why he even had a gun, and he wasn't very forthcoming with an answer, not that it is surprising. Anyway, I finally told him that he could either turn the gun over to me until he got it registered or I could confiscate it for good because he didn't have it registered and either way I wasn't leaving until he did so. He still said no, so I simply waited until he was picking up Grace from school and made a point of letting him know that the whole school and his daughter would know about that gun if he didn't give it to me. It was a low blow but I didn't know what to do. I followed him back to his place and he gave it to me."

"What about the third gun?" Regina asked, her voice flat and emotionless.

"That is a problem. The reason the shop owner bought the gun was because he had been robbed and wanted to have a sense of protection, although the man is so timid I doubt highly he would have ever loaded it much less shot it. Anyway, ironically the gun was stolen from him. It's unaccounted for."

Regina fell silent again.

Emma got up and approached her. "What's wrong?"

"Future you was here earlier."

"Did she upset you? Did she do something to you?"

Regina's eyes went to the floor and then she looked out the window once more. "I asked her for proof, proof that the things she was saying about me and her were true."

"I can't imagine what proof she could possibly offer up."

"Nor did I. Imagine my surprise then when she offered up proof."

"She had proof? How?"

"She says when the timeline changed it stayed with her – maybe because she had it on her, because she always had it on her."

"What was it?"

"A ring. Specifically, the ring Daniel gave me when he asked me to marry him."

She opened her hand and Emma saw the small, simple ring lying on her palm for a moment before Regina closed her hand around it once more.

Emma wasn't sure what to say. She knew what that ring must mean to Regina. She hated herself for asking the next question, "Are you sure it was the actual ring?"

Regina stepped away from her and Emma felt like complete shit.

"Yes," Regina said finally. "It was his ring. I had lost it you see, lost in an effort to get rid of you."

"So that's it then, she was telling the truth the whole time," Emma said. She didn't like conceding the point because she had been so sure that her future self was more than a little shady.

"No," Regina exhaled. "The ring is proof she was not telling the truth."

Regina took a seat at her desk and Emma moved around to sit in front of it. She was trying to think how Regina came to this conclusion and trying not to be too happy about it.

"How does this prove she is lying?"

"I refuse to believe I would give it to her, no matter how charming I may have found her," Regina said. "She has to be lying which makes her even more dangerous than you may think she is."

"How so?"

"Magic. She doesn't get this ring without magic," Regina explained. "It is bothersome to me that she could find this, just as it is bothersome to wonder how exactly she got back here in the first place. Did she really think that she could come back here and succeed in, what get me to date you? I am still at a loss as to what her goals are here."

"She wants to keep you alive," Emma said.

"Then why not just go after whoever kills me?"

"Maybe she doesn't know who did it."

Regina shrugged and Emma noticed her eyes again went down to the ring.

"Did you tell her that you didn't believe her?" Emma asked suddenly.

"No," Regina smiled. "What would be the point in that?"

"If she thinks you are still on her side that could help us determine what she is up to."

"My thought exactly."

"How would you recommend I con a con artist?"

"Difficult," Emma said. "But not impossible." She looked down at her phone; she needed to leave soon to meet Killian for dinner."

"Do you have someplace to be?"

"What? No," she said. "I just need to make a phone call. I am just going to step out a moment when I get back let's map out our next move."

She went outside and dialed Killian.

"Hey love," he answered.

"Hey," she said. "I know we were supposed to do dinner tonight, but something came up with this case and I have to take rain check."

Pause.

"This must be a very important case," he said.

"It is or I wouldn't cancel,"

"Yeah, well let me know when you have time Swan," he said before hanging up.

She felt bad about canceling but she had to work on this with Regina. She was bothered by the point Regina brought up – why wouldn't her future self try and stop Regina from being killed by going after the person responsible? She may have been right when she said the killer's identity may not be known, but what if she wasn't right?

She walked back into Regina's office, "Do you know how to make one of those astral projection potions?"

"Yes, why?"

"Because I need another glimpse at the future."

"To what end?"

"You want to know how she got back here; I can make that happen and maybe get some other answers."

…

Future Emma stood in front of the mirror and waved her hand across it after seeing her younger self cancel her date with Hook. She used her magic to spy on her younger self, and now there was a smile on her face. This could be an opening for her.

She had left Regina's more than a little disconcerted. Despite Regina's "niceness" to her, she sensed she overplayed her hand with the ring. It was a risk introducing an object that Regina had a major emotional attachment to, but it had to be done. She had to offer Regina something when she asked for proof.

She couldn't think about her mistakes right now. Right now she had a date with Hook she intended to keep.

She could only hope that one day Regina would understand that everything she was doing was for her. She wasn't going to lose her, even if meant taking more risks.

She belonged with Regina and she wasn't going to let anything stop her.

…

Emma watched Regina as she began to prepare the astral projection potion. They were back at Regina's house. Emma had brought pizza and they along with Henry had eaten dinner. If Henry thought it was odd that Emma was there, he didn't say anything.

Now they were alone with Henry upstairs.

"Were there signs that she was lying that you noticed before you went into the future?" Regina asked.

"Nothing major. One of the things I noticed is she didn't have any sort of line on her finger to indicate she wore a ring. If she were really married for several years you would think there would be some sign that she wore a ring."

Regina considered it, but didn't say anything.

"I don't know, her whole attitude from the very beginning has bothered me," Emma said.

"Is that because of her fixation on me?"

"That was part of it, I admit."

"At least you are honest about it."

Regina continued to work on the potion thankfully not offering to teach Emma how to make it. After this experience she was pretty sure she wasn't going to be eager to learn anymore magic.

"Do you have any idea when my death happened? I mean the exact time?"

"Not an exact time. The coroner said it was 24 to 32 hours before your body had been found. Why are you asking?"

"Curiosity."

"A morbid curiosity."

"If this is about preventing my death in the other Emma's eyes, then perhaps it is my death we should be concentrating on."

"What do you think I have been doing all day? I have all the guns except the one that Gold has and the one that is unaccounted for. I hate to say this but I don't really see Gold bothering with a gun if he chose to kill you, which means it's the other gun I need to track down. The whole point of me doing this again is to try and get more information, including about your death."

"Yes but what if your future self doesn't know who killed me, then we probably aren't going to get a lot of useful information about it. There is however one way we can assure we do know who kills me."

"How is that?"

"Seeing it happen."

Regina picked up the glass Emma had just watched her pour something into. She thought she was getting ready to mix it, but then she realized what was happening.

"Regina, don't."

"Watch over Henry," Regina said before swallowing the potion as Emma yelled no. Emma reached her as she fell to the floor unconscious. She knelt beside her.  
"What have you done?"

Future Emma walked up to Hook's boat. "Mind if I come aboard?" she asked.

One look at her and she knew that Hook wouldn't say no. She was wearing a short blue dress that left little to the imagination.

He walked over and leaned against the railing. "I thought you had a case to work on."

"No," she smiled. "I just wanted to surprise you."

He smiled back at her, "In that case come aboard love."


	22. Chapter 22

Emma cursed Regina with every step up the stairs. She carried the unconscious woman in her arms. She could have at least taken the damn potion upstairs in her own bedroom, Emma thought as she reached the top of the stairs. Taking a deeper breath from the exertion, she continued to what she was guessing was Regina's room at the end of the hall.

She used her foot to nudge the door open and she immediately knew it had to be Regina's. It was a large bedroom and their were little signs that said it was Regina's – a picture of Henry at the bedside, a three-corner mirror on a vanity that didn't have a single thing out of place, and of course the bed was made.

Emma gently placed Regina down on top. She stared down at the brunette.

"File this under another bad decision of Regina Mills," she said.

"Mom?"

Emma turned to see Henry in the doorway.

"What's wrong with mom?" he asked coming forward and stepping in front of her. He touched Regina's arm.

"Your mom is fine," Emma reassured him. "She's just asleep."

"Did something happen?"

Emma wasn't sure what to say. The one thing she and Regina had been careful about was not involving Henry in this.

"Regina … she took a potion. It's a potion that is going to keep her asleep for the next 12 hours and well she wanted me to keep an eye on you while she is asleep."

"I don't understand. What kind of potion?"

Emma could see the concern written on his face. She silently cursed Regina once more in her mind. "Do you trust me?"

Henry looked at Regina and then at Emma, "yes."

"Good, and you trust me, right?"

"Yes."

"Your mom and I are working on something together. I can't tell you what."

"Why not?"

"Henry," she said bending down to look him in the eye. "You got to trust me on this. What Regina and I are doing is important. It concerns all of our futures and I really need your mom's help with it so she took this potion to help. I know it doesn't make any sense, but you have to believe me that Regina and I just want the best possible future for you and this is part of what we need to do. Ok?"

Henry again looked at Regina. "And she will be ok?"

"I promise," Emma said even as she got a sinking feeling. Regina was playing a dangerous game – if she had timed this wrong and there was a good chance of it since Emma didn't know the exact time of death then Regina could literally experience her future self's death. "She is going to be fine."

…

In the future

Regina stared at the wall as she lay in her bed. She had no idea what time it was, and she wasn't even sure she cared. After all she had nothing to get up for. She was no longer mayor – the emergency referendum vote had stripped that from her within days of the custody hearing.

And she was no longer a mother.

At least that is what the sham of a court had said when they took Henry from her.

She wondered if it meant she really wasn't a mother anymore. Could you be a mom when you didn't have a child?

It took more time to drag herself out of bed, not even bothering with a shower, she left the room. As she walked down the hall she paused in front of the closed door to Henry's room. She had kept the door closed since the first day after the hearing ended. That day she had spent in his room. She had lost all track of time just sitting in there, picking up his things, hugging his pillow, smelling his worn clothes. She had spent the night in it and then walked out closing the door for what she swore to herself was forever.

Yet every day she found she would stand there.

She wanted to hear him in there playing a video game, or laughing after reading some passage from a book. She wanted him to burst out the door so hard that it would hit the wall where the doorknob would crash against it and leave its worn mark that she had kept painting over. She wanted him to come down to her home office like he would as a child when he wanted to show her something.

So many moments. Moments she now felt like she took for granted.

She tore herself away from the door knowing if she stayed there longer she would turn around and go back to bed. That is what she did yesterday.

Regina made her way to her office and sat at her desk, pulling out the piece of paper she had begun writing on a few days ago – at least she thought it was a few days ago. She continued to lose track of time.

A part of her wondered why she was bothering to write the letter at all. It was not as if she planned on giving it to Emma. She read what she had written so far.

_Emma,_

_When my beloved Daniel was murdered I used to spend days in isolation thinking of the what ifs. What if he had lived? What if he and I had gotten our happy ending? I became obsessed with the idea of a life I would never lead. _

_The story of my life should be a lesson in what not to do. _

_Maybe it was nothing less than I deserved for the harm I have caused others. Maybe it was another of life's reminders that I don't get a happy ending. _

_You took away my only chance at happiness when you took Henry away from me. And what hurts the most is that you knew what you were doing. _

_I sit here and I keep wondering why. The night we spent together meant more to me than you could ever imagine. I had always found you to be attractive, and yes sexy, but the idea that you shared the same dream I had – the dream of a life of freedom – was a complete surprise. That is why I kissed you. I thought here is someone who understands what it is like to have people define them, unable to make your own choices._

_You said to me that night that the Savior and the Evil Queen were roles but we didn't have to play them and for a brief time I believed that. I believed it until you forced me to play that role in court in front of the entire town, in front my son._

It was several minutes before she began to write once more.

_Now that I am left with nothing I find myself here again thinking about the what ifs. What if you hadn't left that morning like you did? What if you had just talked to me? What if you had accepted that it wasn't a one-night stand? What if you had kissed me first? _

_I need to tell you that…_

Her doorbell rang and she stopped her writing, waiting. It rang again – but not the front door, it was the back door. She placed the letter back in an envelope in the drawer. She had in her mind what she was going to write next and she had plenty of time to return to it later.

She walked through the kitchen to the back door. She pulled aside the small curtain to see who could possible be there, although she suspected she knew who it was – it was the only person who had come since her isolation in the mansion.

She opened the door so Snow could walk in.

"Good day Regina," Snow said carrying in several grocery bags with her.

"Is it?" Regina answered shutting the door behind her. "You know you shouldn't come here doing the day. Someone might see you. Besides, shouldn't you be in school?"

"It's Sunday."

Regina shrugged as if the information meant nothing to her.

"When I was here last, I noticed you were lacking some food," Snow said putting the bags down on the counter. She began to unpack the items and put them away as Regina simply leaned against one of the counters.

She said nothing as Snow continued her work. Snow finished and turned to her. "Henry misses you," she said.

Regina turned from her. Having someone else say his name was almost physically hurting her.

"Regina, Regina," Snow said as the other woman spaced out.

Regina faced her once more. "How is he?"

"He's doing ok. Like I said he misses you greatly."

"I miss him too," Regina said almost in a whisper.

Once again Regina moved from her.

"Regina," Snow said. "You need to have hope."

"Hope?" Regina laughed. "What hope? I have nothing left to hope for. My son is gone. What are you even doing here? I am the one who caused you not to see your daughter grow up; you should be rejoicing that I won't get to see my son grow up."

"Is that what you want?" Snow asked. "Do you want me to be like the others? Shun you? Say you got what you deserved?"

"I did deserve it!" Regina said with a fierceness that startled Snow.

"If I thought that was true, I would have testified against you at the hearing," Snow said. "But I didn't. I didn't because what Emma did was wrong. She shouldn't have taken Henry from you. I still don't understand why she did it. I don't understand why she all of a sudden became so angry toward you."

Regina bit her tongue. This was not the time to tell Snow she had slept with her daughter.

"None of that matters now," Regina said. "It's done. It's over and there is nothing I can do about any of it."

"People have wondered what you are going to do about it."

"Is that why you are here? Are you here to see if I am going to go all Evil Queen on the town and destroy everything? I mean that is my M.O., just ask any of those people who testified against me."

"Regina, I didn't just come here to bring you groceries; and no I didn't come here to see if you were going to go Evil Queen on us. You need to pull yourself together. Take a shower, change your clothes."

"What's wrong with my clothes?" she asked looking down at her pajamas.

"You were wearing the same thing when I was here a few days ago."

Regina shrugged again, "Tell me what it matters."

"It matters because I am picking Henry up after school tomorrow and … and well I've already told him that I would um drop him off here for a bit so you two can spend time together."

Regina stared at her, not sure she heard her correctly.

"It will only be for a short amount of time so you aren't found out but I figured a little bit of time is better than nothing."

Regina startled her again as she rushed forward and hugged her. "My son, I get to see my son," Regina said.

"Yes," Snow laughed at her obvious joy. "But not if you don't take a shower."

"I will shower. I will dress nice. I will do anything and everything if it means I can see him."

"Good, because Henry doesn't need to see you like this. He is worried enough as it is about you. So you need to try and eat something too."

"I will, I will. Thank you Snow. Thank you so much."

…

Present day

Future Emma took a seat in the bottom of Hook's boat as he poured them a couple of drinks. She was going to need a little liquid courage if she was going to get through this. He handed her the glass and she immediately took a drink, enjoying the feeling of the liquid coating her throat as it went down.

"You seem a tad nervous love," Hook said taking a seat beside her on the bed.

Of course, there was no real place to sit in the lower cabin except on the bed. What had she ever saw in him, she wondered.

She wasn't here to think about her mistakes, she was here to fix them.

"I am not nervous," she smiled at him before leaning in and giving him a kiss. He kissed her back hard, and she thought about how different he was from Regina. When Regina kissed her hard there was still a softness to it, but not with Killian.

Hook stopped first, getting up and taking her glass from her and setting it down next to the one he poured for himself but never drank. He returned to the bed.

"You look great tonight," he said, running his finger along her arm.

Stunning, Emma thought, Regina would have said I look stunning tonight. Or she would have admired her in the dress instead of leering at her like Hook was doing now. She knew she needed to keep her mind on the present and not on Regina but thinking about Regina may be the only way she could go through with this.

She kissed him again and pulled him down on the bed on top of her.

Yes, she would need to think of Regina to get through this.

…

In the future

Regina looked at herself in the mirror. She had showered and dressed and actually looked more like herself than she had in days. After Snow left she had wasted no time in keeping her promise to look more presentable for when she saw Henry tomorrow.

She went back downstairs, again pausing before Henry's door but this time with a smile knowing she would get to see him, hug him tomorrow. She thought about going back to her office and the letter. Part of the reason she had been struggling with writing it was because she knew it was pointless. She wasn't writing it for herself though, she was writing it for Emma.

There were things she wanted to tell the other woman.

It had taken some distance for her to really examine why Emma struck at her – did something to intentionally hurt her. It finally occurred to her that Emma thought Regina hurt her first, and in a way she had.

When Emma first came to town Regina had done a thorough background check on her. She knew about growing up in the system, how Emma never really had a home. When she did live with a foster family it was for a short amount of time and she was given back once that couple had a kid of their own. Between that and feeling abandoned by her real parents Emma must have felt extremely rejected.

Now she believed Regina too had rejected her.

Nothing could be further from the truth. But Emma was so angry at her that she didn't want to listen to the truth. All she knew was that Regina had told her no. Regina had made her feel like she wasn't wanted.

That is what she wanted to tell Emma – that she had been wanted. It was only the circumstances that had played against them. Regina wasn't willing to compromise when it came to Hook. It wasn't fair to any of them if Emma were to try and start something with Regina when she was dating the pirate still. Regina was hurt that Emma even thought that was an option.

And there he was each day at the hearing with Emma, holding her hand. Regina couldn't even look at them so she kept her head turned from them at all times.

What bothered Regina was that she didn't know what Emma expected of her. Emma knew Regina couldn't bare to live without Henry, so why did she do this?

She had fixed a sandwich and ate it at the table with a glass of milk thinking of what to do between now and seeing Henry. She literally had not been anywhere since the hearing except in the mansion and she had no idea when or if she would ever show her face in this town again. It wasn't the first time she had thought about leaving Storybrooke entirely.

She could do it. She could leave and build a life somewhere where no one knew her or knew her past. But to do so would mean leaving Henry behind and she wasn't sure she could do that even if she had been exiled from his life.

The doorbell rang as she finished up and this time she was confused. Surely Snow wouldn't be coming back on the same day. And she wouldn't be using the front door. She cautiously went out to the foyer and up to the door. She stood there as the bell rang again. Opening the door, she immediately took a step back.

"What are you doing here?" she asked.

"I came to talk," Gold said. "May I come in?"

"We have nothing to talk about."

"I don't imagine you get much company nowadays Regina, perhaps it will do you good to have a familiar face to talk to."

"I am fairly certain if I needed one, yours would be the last familiar face I would want to see."

"Regina, let me in. We need to talk."

The last thing she wanted to do was have Gold in her home. She knew she couldn't trust him yet she stepped aside and let him in. She didn't move farther into her house, just stood there with her arms crossed. "What do you want?"

"The same thing you want – the pirate gone."

"Why should I care about the pirate, or your feud with him?"

"Come now; let's not pretend that he didn't play a major role in your downfall. I am merely offering you a chance to get even."

"The last time you offered me the chance to get even, well let's say the result wasn't all it cracked up to be. Now if that is all you came to peddle, I suggest you leave me alone like everyone else in this town."

She moved to the door to open it for him.

"And what if in getting your revenge against Hook, it got you your son back. Not just your son, but Emma?"

She turned and looked at him, "My only interest is in my son."

"If you say so dearie."

"What is it that you want from me because let's not pretend you give a damn about me. You are here for your own reasons, so just say whatever it is you are going to say and then leave."

"I have made no secret about wanting the pirate removed from this life. And let's face it, if he was, the sheriff would come looking for me first. And probably you second. But what I offer is a chance to bring him down in such a way that he will lose what he covets the most – Emma."

"And how would you propose to do that?"

"Easily," he said gesturing with his hand, using magic to make a gun appear. She recognized the model – it was the same as the one she owned. Did Gold know she had a gun like that? He held it in the palm of his hand stretched out to her.

"What is that for?"

"To frame the pirate for your death," he said smiling.


	23. Chapter 23

**A/N: Good news - I am going to start answering the questions you are all wondering - mainly what the hell is going on with this story. The bad news it that this isn't really the chapter that starts answering them. But I promise you, you didn't see it coming.**

In the present

Emma had been watching as Regina slept for a couple of hours now, although she didn't know why. It wasn't like Regina was going to just wake up, but she was concerned about the timing of when she went forward in the future. She remembered how horrified her future self was when she learned Regina hadn't died immediately after being shot in the head.

Why did Regina have to make such rash decisions?

Of course the same could be said about her, and Regina had even lectured her about not considering consequences. But Regina didn't consider them either it would seem. What would happen if she timed this wrong? Did Regina even think about that? Magic comes with a price, so what price would she have to pay now?

She yawned for the fourth time in the last 20 minutes. She had been sitting in the chair at Regina's vanity and it wasn't comfortable. Henry had gone off to bed more than an hour ago and Emma had promised she would keep an eye on Regina. She wasn't sure she could actually do that though.

Maybe if she laid on the floor for a bit and took a nap. The floor didn't seem very enticing so she had spent 10 minutes debating in her head before she got up and lay down on the bed next to Regina.

At first she lay there on her back looking at the ceiling, but eventually she moved on to her side facing Regina. She stared at the older woman thinking about how crazy this had all become. For a little while she had actually believed her future self – believed that maybe she and Regina did end up together. Married to Regina, she could scarcely even imagine how that would work out.

They had been at odds most of the time they knew each other. It seemed the only thing could agree on was wanting the best for Henry.

It was gratifying to see how Regina had changed in the time they had known each other. She honestly felt like Regina wanted to be a good person all the time, but she had no one but Henry to believe her. Emma believed in her as well, and maybe even Snow, but Emma wasn't sure Regina saw that.

Her eyes started to close again. It was just going to be a little nap.

…

In the future

Regina waited on her couch – the gun sitting in front of her on the coffee table. Gold had left long ago after pitching his plan. Regina had told him that she would consider it. In no way was she going to consider it because it was a stupid plan. What made it worse was that Gold actually looked at her like he thought she would go along with it. Did he really think that she had fallen so low that she would agree to such an offer from him?

His plan involved faking her death and blaming the pirate. Gold assured her that with their magic combined not only could they pull it off but it would show Emma and the rest of the town that Hook hadn't really changed.

She asked him how exactly that helped her get Henry back if she was supposed to be dead. Even if she had bought the plan up to the point, what he said next was enough for her to mentally at least roll her eyes at him. He said that he could convince Henry that she would never let anyone get that close to her with a mere mortal weapon like a gun and that she must have employed magic to protect herself and if that were the case she could still be magically alive even if she appeared dead. He made it sound like this was plausible and that Gold even would make a show of "resurrecting" her and once alive she would have Henry again because people would feel bad that she was killed and Emma would back off the whole sole custody issue. Eventually, he said even Emma would come around.

Regina was not sure Gold actually knew she and Emma had slept together or if he was making inferences from something else. She supposed it didn't matter. She would rather die and than get involved in another of Gold's schemes.

That was why she was sitting there waiting.

Eventually there was a knock at the door and she got up to answer it.

"What do you want?" Hook said as she opened the door.

She moved out of the way, "Come in. Like I said I have information for you."

She had made the decision to call Hook not long after Gold left. She had no love for the pirate that was for sure, but she also wasn't going to let Gold continue his vendetta. As long as it was directed at Hook, Henry could get caught in the crossfire and she couldn't allow that to happen.

She led him to the main room where she had been sitting.

"Did you invite me here to shoot me?" he asked taking note of the gun.

"No, it's not even loaded," she said. "That was a gift from Gold." She proceeded to tell him about Gold's visit. Hook didn't say anything as she told him. When she was finished, he picked up the gun, "So he believes you were willing to go through with this?" he said examining the gun.

"I don't know. I don't really care. I just felt you should know."

He nodded, "Thank you. Um … since I am here, there were some books that Henry wanted. Up in his room."

She didn't want to tell him no and definitely didn't want to let on that Henry was going to be there on his own the next day. "What books are they, I will go get them."

"I don't really remember what they were called. Maybe if I saw them I would remember."

"This way," she said and she went up the stairs with him following. She paused outside of the door.

"Do you want me to go look on my own?" he said when she continued to stand there.

"No," she said opening the door and walking in. She was immediately confronted with the emotions of the loss of her son as she saw his things. She pointed at the bookshelf, and Hook headed that direction while she went closer to the bed.

She picked up the framed photo of the two of them that had been on the bedside table. She let her fingers slide down the glass. He was just a little kid in the photo, his eyes full of love for her. She placed the photo back on the stand and turned, "Did you find …"

She heard what sounded like an explosion as something hard slammed into the side of her head.

Her mind tried to process something, anything. She was on the floor, and she felt something or she thought she did as a hammering pain invaded her head. She couldn't hear anything, but her eyes saw something – boots walking past her field of vision. Breathe she thought I can breathe, why can't I move? She thought she was trying to move but nothing happened.

…

In the present

Emma jolted awake not really sure why she did but her eyes immediately went to Regina who was still lying there, but now her eyes were open.

"Regina?"

No reaction.

"Regina," she said again shaking her hard. "Regina."

The brunette continued to stare, making no other signs that she was awake. Something was wrong, of that Emma was sure. She tried shaking her again, harder this time and called out her name again.

"Fuck," Emma said, checking the time on her phone. She had been asleep longer than she had meant to but Regina shouldn't be awake yet. In fact she had just over two hours left before she was supposed to wake up. She felt a terror well up inside her.

Regina had miscalculated her jump forward.

…

Future Emma left Hook's boat secure in the idea that her plan would work. She was walking down the dock when she felt a pain in her arm. She grabbed the spot on her left forearm where it hurt. These little jabs of pain had started the day before. She knew what it meant – her time in this time was growing short. Time would eventually catch up to her and wrench her forward to where she was supposed to be, but in order to make it the future she wanted it to be, she still had work to do.

Now that she had dealt with Hook, she needed to go back and check on Regina. She hadn't heard from the other woman which was not a good sign. It meant Regina probably didn't believe her about the ring and worse could be doubting all of it. She needed Regina to believe because her younger self didn't.

She didn't waste any time so she used her magic to first change clothes into something more casual and then transported into Regina's home. She appeared in the home office knowing if Henry was up at this early hour he wouldn't be in there. She carefully made her way up to Regina's room. Maybe she could charm Regina into a good morning.

She barely knocked before entering, stopping immediately as she saw the other Emma on the bed trying to wake Regina.

"What's going on here?" she said quickly moving over to the bed. She saw Regina's eyes were open but she wasn't moving and knew there was something wrong. Emma scrambled off the bed and blocked her way.

"Out of my way,"

"No, you aren't going anywhere near her."

"What's wrong with her?" future Emma asked, the emotions in that one question were as raw as the ones younger Emma was feeling.

"I don't know for sure, but this is your fault and you aren't going to touch her."

"Out of my way," future Emma said again, trying to move around her, but Emma grabbed her and pushed her back against the wall by the door.

"You want to know what's wrong with her? She took one of those damn astral projection potions in order to move forward in time and discover whether you are a lying piece of shit or not. She went forward to see what kind of danger she was in, but she must not have done it right."

"What do you mean?"

"Look at her," Emma said, pointing back to Regina. "Do you think that's normal? What do you think happened to her in the future while she was inside her future self's brain?"

"No," future Emma said trying to again move forward but Emma slammed her back against the wall.

…

In the future

Regina had given up on moving. It was useless. Her mind was already starting to slip away from her; she could feel it. She tried to think of simple things, but found she couldn't even recall how she got there or why she was on the floor. She had tried counting earlier, but couldn't get past the number 8. There was something wrong with her.

She was dying, she thought.

It was a curious thought and one which her mind wouldn't let her fully process.

Henry, she thought. Henry was supposed to come over. She was supposed to see her son. Henry, she had to get up for Henry. She tried to move again and then remembered that she couldn't.

Her mind went into a loop where it would think of Henry and then she would try to move because Henry was supposed to come over. It ended the same way with her remembering she couldn't move, but then her mind would think of Henry again and the loop would restart. She wasn't sure how long it went on before her mind stopped it.

Another name came into her mind – Emma.

….

In the present

"Emma."

Younger Emma turned and let go of her future self when she heard the whisper of her name. Future Emma pushed past her and made it to the bed, sitting on the edge and taking Regina's hand in hers.

"Regina, I am here," Future Emma said brushing the side of her cheek with the outside of her hand. "I am here, wake up."

Emma grabbed her from behind and pulled her from the bed and onto the floor. "I said stay away from her," she said standing above her.

Future Emma scrambled to her feet. "This isn't my fault. This is your fault. You can't even see what is in front of you. Your happiness is right there in that bed, but you think you know every thing. I've got news for you; you don't half of what you think you know. I will not lose her again."

"Hey …"

They both turned to see Henry standing in the doorway. Younger Emma moved to him, "Henry, I need you to go back to your room."

"What's going on? Is mom ok?" he asked trying to look around her to see Regina. "Who is that and why does she look like you?"

"Henry, I need you to get back to your room. I will explain everything, I promise, but for now just go please."

He didn't want to go, but he saw the seriousness in Emma's eyes and nodded before turning and walking away. She shut the door and turned to see her future self standing next to the bed looking down at Regina.

"How much time does she have left?"

"I don't know, less than two hours,"

"I am going to have to pull her from it," future Emma said.

"Pull her from it? Is that even possible?"

"Yes, with powerful enough magic," future Emma said. She waved her hand and from the angle Emma couldn't see what she was now holding. She moved closer and then rushed forward taking her future self's wrist and pulling out away from her body and away from Regina. But as soon as she saw it full on, she let go of the wrist.

She looked at her future self unable to say anything as she backed up a couple of steps.

"It's not possible," she said finally.

Future Emma looked down at what she held in her hand.

"Like I said you don't know half of what you think you do," she said. "You have no idea what they did to Regina. I tried to do this simply without you finding out just how badly you messed things up, but I see we are beyond that now."

Present day Emma looked at the object again. She knew exactly what it was – had seen the curvy dagger before. Except when she had seen it, it had said _Rumpelstiltskin. Now there were only four letters on it – Emma._


	24. Chapter 24

**A/N: I was totally overwhelmed with the positive response from my last chapter. I was a little worried you guys would think I took the whole twists too far. But apparently it was well received. So here is the next chapter. You aren't going to get a lot of questions answered in this one either, but I promise you they are upcoming.**

"What have you done?" present Emma asked.

"I did what I had to do to get back to her," future Emma said looking at Regina. "Now maybe it's best if you leave. I need to see if I can help her."

Emma took a step toward her, "I am not leaving and I am sure as hell not going to let you use dark magic on her."

Future Emma glared at her, "I am not going to leave her lying like this. We have no idea what is wrong with her, how long it will last or anything else. How could you be so stupid as to let her try this?"

"Hey, she wanted to do this because like me she doesn't trust you, and apparently for good reason. You've been lying to us from the moment you got here," Emma shot back at her. "Now you step away from her because I swear I don't care what powers you have I will …"

Future Emma waved her hand and watched as her counterpart disappeared. She would deal with her later. Right now she needed to figure out how to help Regina. She had been a little overconfident in saying she could pull Regina out of it. The truth was this magic was still new to her and she had no idea what she could or couldn't do.

The only thing she knew was she couldn't wait the two hours for Regina to wake up on her own.

She was too afraid Regina wouldn't wake up all.

….

Emma nearly stumbled forward as she appeared in her own apartment. It took a moment to realize what happened, but once she did she was headed for the door.

"Fucking bitch," she said as she barreled through it. She was done with this. She didn't care if it was her future self or not, she was ready to end this once and for all – even if it meant taking on the Dark One.

…

In the future

She thought maybe her hearing was returning, but she couldn't be sure as it was if she was hearing voices underwater. Maybe it's all in my mind, Regina thought.

She didn't know what was happening, and no longer remembered why she was lying on the floor.

Occasionally something would appear in her line of sight, but she had trouble knowing what they were. Her mind told her she knew, but it couldn't pull a word for it out of her brain. It was frustrating her.

Again one of them came into her field of vision. She tried to concentrate. What was it?

Shoes.

The word finally came to her. She was seeing shoes.

Did that mean someone was there with her? Could someone help her? She didn't even know why she needed help only that it seemed right that she did need help. More shoes came into her vision. These were different than the others.

More than one kind of shoe, she thought. But she couldn't get her brain to comprehend what that meant.

She was getting tired, tired of trying to think.

Maybe it would be ok if I just slept, she thought, but she couldn't seem to get her eyes to close. She thought she was telling them to close but they remained open.

That is when she felt it – a pain like no other. It felt like someone had peeled back a layer of her skin, only to burn the layer underneath. She wanted to run from it, to cry out, to do anything other than what she was doing which was just feeling it.

She screamed inside her mind for it to stop.

….

In the present

Regina cried out in pain and her body shook like she was having a seizure. Emma immediately panicked, not knowing what to do. She looked from Regina to the dagger in her hand.

She wanted to use the magic to help pull Regina back from wherever she was, but she was afraid of it. This magic had felt wrong since the moment she claimed the dagger. She tried to think of what Regina would do, and she knew that Regina wouldn't be freaking out because Regina understood magic in a way Emma never did.

Emma also knew she couldn't sit back and do nothing.

She placed the dagger on Regina midsection and put Regina's hand on the hilt, covering it with her own. She closed her eyes concentrating on how much she loved this woman in the bed and how much she needed Regina to be ok. She felt the magic flowing through every cell of her body – unlike her natural magic this magic felt like an infection that covered each of those cells in a black marble. It felt heavy, it felt like it would consume her and drag her down but she kept her mind and more importantly her heart focused on Regina in order to combat it.

She couldn't let it end like this, not after all she had done.

Concentrating, she reached out not for Regina's mind because it wasn't really her mind that had traveled into the future – she reached for her soul.

It took her longer than she hoped and she felt like the magic she was expending was going to tear her in two. Once she found Regina's soul she grabbed a hold of it and pulled, but it felt like it was stuck. She pulled again – but nothing.

No, her mind panicked, she was too late.

She poured all her magic –her natural magic and the power of the Dark One – and she pulled hard on Regina's soul.

A burst of magic knocked Emma from the bed and onto the floor.

It was powerful enough that she was dazed for several moments. She looked up at the bed where Regina was now sitting up seeming to be as dazed as she was. Emma scrambled over to her and grabbed her face with her two hands, staring into her eyes.

"Talk to me. Say something please."

Regina's eyes were glassy but they started to focus.

"Please baby, tell me you are ok."

"Emma?"

Emma smiled and kissed her and kept kissing her.

"Miss Swan!" Regina said pulling away and then realizing which Emma was with her. "Where is Miss Swan?"

"I don't know. I don't care. All that matters is that you are safe. Don't ever scare me like that again," she said kissing her once more.

Again Regina pulled away from her, this time getting off the bed entirely but she moved too quickly. She would have fallen to the floor if it weren't for Emma catching her and then leading her back to the bed.

"Just take it easy," Emma said. "Hold on I will go get you something to drink. Stay there."

Regina was sitting up in bed but she closed her eyes – as she did the sensation of being trapped and unable to move hit her and her eyes flew back open and she instinctually moved just to make sure she could.

Her hand touched something on the bed and she looked down at it seeing the Dark One's dagger lying there next her. She was about to pick it up as she noticed the writing on it.

"Mom?" Henry was in the doorway and approached her. "What's going on? Are you alright?"

"Yes, I am ok," she said sliding a pillow over the dagger.

"I heard arguing a little while ago and came in here and Emma was here along with another woman who looked just like her. Emma made me leave, but I was worried about you because you were lying here not moving with your eyes open. Who was that other woman, I saw her go downstairs and where is Emma?"

"I don't know where Emma is," Regina said. "As for the other woman, she is Emma. It's difficult to explain, but she is from the future and she came back here to help straighten a few things out. She's here to help. I think."

"Emma didn't seem to think so."

"I know," Regina said and she moved to hug Henry. "But we will figure it all out."  
Emma came back into the room holding a bottle of water. She saw Regina hugging Henry and she a sad smile crept onto her face as she thought about all she was in danger of losing.

"Hey kid,"

Henry turned and stared at her. "Are you really from the future?"

"I am," she smiled.

"That's cool. What am I like in the future?"

"You are a 210 pound linebacker for the high school football team."

"What?" Regina and Henry asked at the same time.

"Just kidding," Emma said. "Can you give your mom and me some private time, I need to talk some things over with her?"

Henry looked at Regina to see if that is what she wanted him to do, she nodded and he gave her another hug before leaving.

Emma closed the door behind her and then handed Regina her water. Regina took a drink while Emma sat down on the edge of the bed.

"We do have a lot to talk about," Regina said pulling out the dagger. "Starting with this."

"I can explain, I promise, but right now I want to make sure you are ok," she said, touching Regina's leg. "What happened? Why did you take that potion?"

"I had to know. I am tired of being in the dark here. And this dagger tells me I have been rather naïve about this whole thing."

"Not naïve; I didn't want it to get this far. When I came back here I honestly thought it would be simpler than this. I only wanted to fix things."

"Emma you are the Dark One. How does that happen?"

"It happens because of you. It happened because I had to save you. As long as you are safe, I am not going to apologize to you or anyone else for it. You were there weren't you, in the future, you know what those bastards did to you right?"

Regina closed her eyes and thought back to what she experienced. A shudder ran through her body as she again felt the sensation that she was trapped. For a moment her hearing stopped once more and she couldn't get her mind to tell her limbs to move.

"Regina!" Emma said shaking her out of her stupor. Emma's eyes spoke volumes of her concern for Regina right then as the brunette gasped for breaths she thought she had been losing. "What's wrong?"

"I was … I was shot."

"I know," Emma said. "You shouldn't have had to witness that."

"You don't understand, I was shot, but the gun it didn't have any bullets in it. I checked and it was empty."

Emma nodded. "You were set up."

Regina had a thoughtful look on her face. "Gold," she said finally. "He actually gave me the gun that killed me. He was working with Hook to kill me. But why? At that point I was certainly no threat to him."

"It wasn't about you being a threat?"

"Then what was it about?"

…

Present Emma entered the mansion and went up the stairs, stopping at Henry's room when she saw the door was open. She noticed the door to Regina's room was shut.

"Mom's in there with you, future you I guess."

"Henry, I need you to go downstairs and get into my car."

"Why?"

"Because as long as she is in this house, I will not have you here."

"But mom says she is here to help."

"Just do as I say," Emma said and she moved toward Regina's door. She put her ear to the door to see if she could hear anything. The voices were too muffled for her to make out anything clearly. She pulled her gun out and opened the door, immediately pointing it at her future self. "Get away from her."

"Don't be ridiculous," future Emma said.

"I said get away from her."

Future Emma put her hands up in a mocking fashion and backed away from the bed.

"Regina," present Emma said. "Come toward the door, we are getting out of here."

Regina slowly got off the bed on the opposite side from future Emma. "Maybe we should all calm down," she said. "Miss Swan, put the gun down."

"No," Emma said. "She's the Dark One."

"I know," Regina said showing that she had the dagger in her hand. "In fact she was about to explain what exactly is going on here."

"So you can hear more of her lies, I don't think so. That dagger is all the proof you need to know that she has been scheming since she got here. Regina, let's get out of here. I already told Henry to get in the car."

"Wait," Regina said. "I want to hear her out."

"Why?"

"Because I was shot and killed and something else …," she trailed off, again the feeling of being on that floor hit her. Except this time she thought about the excruciating pain that she had felt although couldn't react to it. She felt dizzy and reached out to the bed as the dagger slipped from her hand.

Both Emmas saw Regina suddenly stare off into space before the dagger fell and she began move toward the bed. Future Emma took a step toward the bed. "Don't," present Emma said keeping the gun pointed at her as she slowly moved toward Regina. "Regina, what's wrong?"

Regina didn't answer her. She sunk to her knees next to the bed, gripping her midsection as a phantom pain shot through her body.

"What's wrong with her?" Emma asked her future self.

"I don't," she said, moving toward Regina. Let her younger self shoot her, she didn't care; she needed to get to Regina.

Present Emma looked from Regina to her counterpart and back again, before lowering her weapon and holstering it. She knelt next to Regina, "Regina, what's wrong?"

"Hurts," Regina said through clenched teeth.

"What hurts? What is happening?"

But the pain again overwhelmed her to the point she couldn't answer. Emma helped her up and on to the bed. "Don't leave me," she said gripping Emma's hand.

"I'm not," Emma said keeping a hold of Regina's hand. Regina squeezed it hard as she felt pain again, this time enough pain that she passed out.

"Regina," Emma said shaking her, but Regina was completely out. She was breathing evenly though much to Emma's relief. She was so focused on Regina she failed to notice her future self until she was already rising from picking up the dagger.

"What are you going to do now?" younger Emma asked, knowing there was no way she could pull her gun out in time if future Emma chose to do something.

"Why do you have this hatred toward me?"

"I don't know, maybe because you have lied repeatedly, oh and there is the fact that you became the Dark One."

"I have lied a little, but not about anything important."

"Really? How about the lie of you and Regina being married."

"That isn't a lie. She is my wife. Just because you are refusing to see that doesn't make it any less real."

"You are completely delusional," Emma said. "You honestly believe that you are married to her and have some life with her. But you don't. You just went crazy when she was murdered. You've made up this entire other life in your mind and you believe it to be real. Why don't you tell me what really happens in the future? Why don't you tell me about how you became the Dark One to come back here and try to manufacture this fantasy world of yours into something real?"

"You think I am the future Emma from this timeline?" she asked.

"Who else could you be?"

"I am the Emma whose life got ripped away from her because of your actions," she shot back. "Maybe it's time you see what I lost."

She held the dagger out in front of her and Emma was right she couldn't move fast enough. She was suddenly frozen there and future Emma approached her and placed a hand on her forehead.

"I hope this works."

Images suddenly flashed through Emma's mind. It wasn't like astral projection, it was more like watching television on fast forward with no sounds. She saw Regina and her kissing, holding hands, lying together on the couch. More images came – a wedding, Henry looking older, Regina pregnant, holding Regina's hand as she gave birth.

Then there was the baby. She was holding the child in her arm, then she was sitting on the floor as Regina held her arms as she attempted to take her own steps toward Emma.

Alex.

The name was suddenly in her mind. Alexandra.

The images stopped and Emma could move once more.

"Did it work?" future Emma asked, taking a seat at the foot of the bed. She looked tired all of a sudden and she was rubbing her forearm.

"What did you do to me?" Emma asked.

"I tried to show you some of my memories. Did it work?"

Emma thought of the little girl again. Could that be her daughter? She shook her head.

"How do I know any of that is real? You are the Dark One, you could have created those images."

Future Emma laughed, "You really are unbelievable. You know what, you don't deserve my future." She stood and began to walk to the door.

"Where are you going?"

"To go lie down somewhere," she said, looking back at Regina. "Take care of her."

"Take care of her? Wait, I don't even know what is wrong with her."

"I don't either," future Emma said. "I thought maybe I got to her in time, but maybe I didn't."

"Got to her in time for what? What happened to her in the future? She said something else happened. What was it?"

Future Emma sighed as she leaned against the door frame.

"She didn't die immediately after being shot. That was intentional. The bullets – there was a spell on them to keep her alive just long enough for them to get what they came for."

"Who are they and what did they want?"

"Even if I told you who, you clearly wouldn't believe me. As for what they wanted, well, our magic it doesn't come from our physical bodies that is why it's connected to our emotions. It's more than the mind or heart. It comes from our souls. They ripped hers from her before she died."

Present Emma looked at Regina trying to contemplate what that meant. The sound of it was horrific to her.

"Just tell me why?" Emma asked, her eyes not leaving Regina's sleeping form. "Why would someone take her soul?"


	25. Chapter 25

**A/N: I know you are confused, but think of this way, if you guys knew what was going to happen it wouldn't be as interesting to read. But bonus chapter time.**

Future Emma looked at her younger self. She remembered feeling like going back in time would be easy – that she would be in and out and her life would go on as it had. What a fool she had been. She had forgotten that at times – many times – she could be stubborn. She had grown up alone, learning not to rely on others. That was until she came to Storybrooke.

And it took a while, but she learned to be part of a community, part of a family and when she and Regina finally got together she learned how to give herself to another person entirely.

This Emma she was looking at now hadn't experienced that. This Emma didn't know that the woman in the bed next to her would be everything she ever needed or wanted.

She could feel it all slipping away. She thought of Alex and how her little girl absolutely adored Regina and worshiped her older brother Henry. She was pretty certain the girl was going to grow up without fear because she already believed that if Henry could do something, so could she.

She just wanted to be able hold Alex in her arms once more, brush the top of Henry's head with her hand and wake up to Regina.

She was so tired and she began to wonder if perhaps this was no longer her fight. She had come back to make younger Emma fix her mistake, and maybe that was how it needed to be. As much as she hated to do it, she was going to have learn a lesson she had already learned once – relying on someone else.

"Life," she finally said. "You take a person's soul because the magic contained in it is literally life. It's the age old mystery. If you have a soul what becomes of it when you die – heaven, hell or does the energy just go some place, become something different. And if it can become something different, does that mean that energy can be shaped and molded? So you kill the Evil Queen because her soul is not just energy, it encompasses her magic, a very powerful magic. You kill her because there is no one to care if she lives or dies except a boy."

"You need to give me more," Emma said. "I need answers."

"That's the problem," future Emma said. "You want answers, but you don't trust me to give them to you. I wanted answers too when I woke up in that other timeline. I wasn't getting them in Storybrooke where people had merely accepted Regina's death as a suicide and I was no longer welcomed with open arms. I returned to Boston in despair and that is when I found this."

She pulled a flash drive from her pants pocket and tossed it to Emma.

"If you really want answers, they are in there. It's not anything you are going to want to hear, but if you want to change your fate, start with that," she said, turning away before stopping. Regina usually keeps her laptop in her home office. The password is Snow White. Ironic, I know."

She left the room and Emma fingered the flash drive wondering what it could possibly contain. She made Regina more comfortable in bed and then walked downstairs. She had no idea where her counterpart went but found Henry sitting in the foyer.

"She left," he said. "She wasn't looking very good."

"She used magic to help your mom and I think it weakened her."

"Is mom alright?"

"She's sleeping again," Emma said, not sure how to even begin to explain this to Henry. "Don't worry; I am not going to let anything happen to your mom."

"Are you going to tell me what is going on? Mom said that future you is here to help, but you don't seem to agree."

Emma looked down at the flash drive in her hand. "I don't know really know if she is here to help or what, but I do know she's not going to do anything to harm your mom either. Look I know this is weird, weirder even than what we are used to dealing with, but this is all about keeping Regina safe. She might be in some danger from someone and my future self came back to warn us about it. We all just want to make sure she is safe, that is all."

"Who is she in danger from?"

"I don't know," Emma shrugged. "But we're putting the pieces together and when I know something more concrete we will know better how to deal with it. For now though we need to keep an eye on her, make sure she is ok and that no one does her harm. Do you think you can help me with that?"

"I'll do anything to keep her safe," he said.

"Good. I am going to use your mom's office for a bit. Why don't you go back upstairs and just check on her every once in a while. You don't need to stay in there or anything, but if she wakes up come get me."

He nodded and she waited for him to get upstairs before she made sure the front door was locked. She wasn't going to take any chances.

She made her way into Regina's office where her laptop was sitting out on the desk. She opened it up and waited for it boot up. Typing in Snow White she couldn't help but smile as only Regina would choose that as a password because no one would ever guess she would use it. The woman was clever; she'd have to give her that.

She opened the flash drive to find a series of what appeared to be video files. She clicked on the one that was dated the earliest and was surprised to find she was staring at herself talking on the screen. Realizing the computer was muted she turned up the volume and restarted it.

"Henry is still not talking to me. I tried to speak to him about this filing for emancipation thing but he wouldn't even look at me. How can I make him understand how sorry I am for all of this? How do I make him see how much I regret my actions?" she said. "Maybe I can't. Nothing short of bringing Regina back to life would work at this point I am guessing. And if I could bring her back I would but I can't."

The Emma on the screen took a drink from a bottle of beer before continuing.

"I got the lockbox from Regina's closet opened up finally. Just like I thought there was a gun inside. It is the same kind of gun as mine and the same as the one which was used in her shooting. So why would she have two of the same guns – well she wouldn't. She wouldn't."

Emma laughed and took another drink. "There went my theory that Regina used a gun like mine to say she blamed me. Could I have more of an ego? I actually started to think that maybe she couldn't stand living with out me. That is so stupid. It was always about Henry. She loved him so much. She loved him and I knew it and I took him away from her even though I knew she couldn't live without him."

The video stopped and Emma sat back in the chair considering it. Could that really be her from the other timeline? From the background she could see it was filmed at her apartment.

She moved on to the next video file and clicked play.

"It happened today. Henry packed up his stuff and left. I wonder if I am still a mother if I don't have a child."

That was a short clip so Emma played the next one.

"I haven't been sleeping very well Regina," Emma said. "It's not that I am not tired, I am, but I can't seem to sleep the full night through. Sometime I wake up and I think I am going to see you there lying beside. You'll look at me and you'll smile and you will tell me that it was all a bad dream. And I'll laugh it off because of course it was a bad dream because you are there beside me, alive and …"

"I miss Henry. I guess I am getting a taste of what I did you," she said running her fingers through her hair. "I keep thinking that I need to do something to fix this, something that will set it all right because this can't be how my life ends up being. It can't be. I went and visited your mausoleum the other night. It's not like the sheriff is going to get caught for trespassing. I stood there staring at the wall for probably an hour or more thinking that it was stupid to be there because you aren't there, not really."

"I told Killian that I needed some time to myself and he took off the next day in his boat. I don't know where he was going and I don't even care. I should have ended it with him a long time ago. I should have ended it when you and I made love because that is what it was. It wasn't sex, we made love that night, but I got scared Regina. I was scared of what it meant because I had never connected with anyone like I did with you. If I hadn't been such a coward and owned up to the fact that I fell for you long before I ever kissed you then I wouldn't be in this mess. I would be waking up in bed beside you. I miss you Regina. Come back to me."

Emma thought back to when she was in this Emma's mind and she realized that this Emma had indeed loved Regina. But she was scared.

She moved to the next clip.

"Hook came back the other day and walked into the sheriff's office like nothing had happened between us. He asked me – practically begged me to come to the harbor with him for a surprise. I don't know why I went – bored maybe, hard to say. It may have been the whiskey that he promised me. It seems like the only way I get a full night's sleep nowadays is if I drink myself into a coma. I know it's not good for me and I need to stop. I will stop. I can't hope to get my life back in order and get Henry back if all I am doing is sulking around. Anyway, Hook's big surprise was the Jolly Roger. I couldn't believe it. There it was docked in the harbor – his ship. I asked him how and I almost dropped dead when he said Gold helped him get it back. He explained that Gold wanted to get Belle something special back in the Enchanted Forest somewhere so he helped Hook to get there and gave him the means to get his ship back as part of their deal. You would think Hook of all people wouldn't make a deal with Gold, but his eyes were lit up like a kid at Christmas all because of that boat. He took the opportunity to remind me that he had given it up to help me, that and a couple of whiskeys and I was waking up in his bed. I left that morning before he woke and when he called me later I told him it was a mistake. He said I would change my mind and he could be patient. He's going to have to be more than patient because I am done with that part of my life."

"I talked to my mom today. I know she had been worried about me but I told her that I not ok but I was going to be ok if that made any sense. I need to become the person I was before, someone Henry would be proud to call his mom."

Emma played the clip back again. Hook and Gold – no way, she thought. Gold would have to be desperate to enlist Hook's help. She could see Hook going for it though if it meant he got his ship back. He loved the Jolly Roger and she knew it hurt him to give it up.

She didn't give it too much thought as she was more concerned with studying herself. She hadn't appeared to have been drinking based on the clip and she did seem to honestly want to start turning things around in her life in order to get Henry back. Clearly that never happened though.

She moved on to the next file.

The Emma that came on the screen next looked pale and had dark circles under her eyes.

"I don't understand how this happened. I am always careful – well ever since Henry I have been careful. I thought when I took the home test that it was some sort of defective one or a mistake some how but Dr. Whale confirmed it this morning. I'm pregnant."

Emma stopped the video. Her hand shook as she moved it back a few seconds. "I'm pregnant." She paused again only to play it back again and again. Finally she let it run.

"I have to tell Hook. I haven't been with anyone but him," she exhaled deeply. "How do I tell people that I am pregnant? How do I tell Henry? He still isn't talking to me. I don't know, maybe this could be good thing. Henry will want to be a part of his sibling's life, right? Maybe this could be a new beginning for us."

She put her face in the palm of her hands for a moment. "Pregnant. How did this happen?"

Once the video stopped Emma stood up from the desk. She didn't want to watch anymore. She didn't want to know. Pregnant with Hook's child. She became pregnant with Hook's baby. The other Emma was right, she had been extremely careful ever since having Henry. She had even considered getting a hysterectomy to ensure she didn't get pregnant again. That Emma wasn't exactly overjoyed with the prospect of being pregnant and Emma realized that if she was pregnant right now with Hook's baby she wouldn't be overjoyed either. Their relationship was still young as it was and she never even considered that it would lead to something like this.

There were more video files left but she wasn't sure she could watch them. Future Emma had warned that she wouldn't want to hear and she knew she was right. But she also said this flash drive contained answers and as much as she feared what those answers might be she knew she had to keep watching.

She played the next clip.

"Hey Regina," Emma said. "I think it's easier to pretend like I am talking to you rather than be that pathetic loser sitting alone in her apartment talking to herself. It makes me seem less crazy too. You know what I was thinking about earlier. I was thinking about that letter you were writing to me, the one you left unfinished in your desk. You know stopping like that mid-thought was more than a little cruel. It was like the series ending of Sopranos – who thinks something like that is a good idea? Anyway, I was thinking that it would have been nice if you had finished it and you know maybe you would have given it to me and whatever you were going to say, it would, well, it would have gotten my head out of my ass and we would have worked things out and you would forgive me for what I did and I would forgive you for rejecting me, which you had every right to do because I was being a bitch. There I can admit I was wrong. Bet that makes you feel happy, doesn't it?"

"Still, you would have forgiven me and then we would have dated and I would show you that I could treat you like you deserved to be treated. I would show you that I am not a total fuck up and that you could rely on me and I would always be there for you. Then you know our relationship would continue and get better and stronger and eventually we would decide to move into together – to your place because it's bigger – and then one day I would surprise you by asking you to marry me. I would do it on some random day, like a Tuesday so you wouldn't see it coming and you would say yes and then you and me and Henry we would have this life together and maybe sometime down the line we would decide we would want to have a child. We would discuss it and we would agree together because that is how it should be …"

Emma trailed off and looked to her right side before turning back to the camera. "I told Hook. I had to. It's his kid after all. Please don't hate me for it Regina. This isn't easy you know. I didn't plan for this. I didn't ask for this."

She paused again, looking away. "Hook was ecstatic when I told him. He lifted me up in the air and hugged me. He started talking about our family and … and he asked me to marry him. I told him now wasn't the time to talk about marriage."

"Am I a bad person for not wanting to raise a child with him? Am I bad person for envisioning raising a child with you?"

Next video

"I ran into Belle today. You are never going to guess this, but she is pregnant. Must be something in the water," Emma said. "She was really happy and you know Belle, when she starts smiling you start smiling. She just has that infectious personality. I asked her if she and Gold had been planning to have a child. She said they had talked about it but Whale had told her that her chances of getting pregnant naturally were very slim. I guess she beat the odds. Anyway our kids will be born within weeks of each other so instant play dates."

Emma shut the video off, again standing. Sometimes she thought better when she was moving around. An idea was planting itself in her mind and she hated herself for even thinking it.

Future Emma's words came back to her about why someone would take a person's soul – because it is life.

Her hands were both shaking now as she sat down and hit play on the next video.


	26. Chapter 26

**A/N: I wanted to start off by answering a few questions people asked me. Firstly, no I am not making this up as I go along. When I started I didn't have it planned out but it's been planned out for quite a while now so yes I know how it will end. When will it end? That is a more difficult question to answer so let's go with I don't know because it depends on how I end up separating chapters. I love that everyone seems to have embraced this story even though I am sure it aggravates you because you start to think you know what's going on and then I destroy your theories with rocket launchers. Sorry about that. Anyway, here is another bonus chapter. Yes, I am spoiling you at this point.**

Emma sat in silence staring at the camera for nearly a full minute before she began to speak.

"This is going to sound crazy Regina, trust me, I know how it sounds, but it's like sometimes during my day I get this strong feeling that you are there. There have been times I have stopped what I am doing to look around because I am sure I am going to see you. Last night I was at the station late and I felt and I got out of my chair and searched the place expecting to see you. Are you haunting me? Are you out there somewhere? Are you trying to communicate with me?"

She sat back in her seat as if considering how ridiculous she sounded.

"I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow. Killian is coming with me although I am not sure why. It's not even like I am having an ultrasound done. It's still too early for that. He's been hovering and it's been pissing me off. Everything is about the baby and how we are going to share a life together and … I keep thinking how on earth I got into this mess. I should be happy to be having a baby, right?"

The next video

"I asked Henry to come over so I could talk him, to tell him about the baby. He said he didn't want to come over and I ended up telling him over the phone. There was just silence at first and then he was asking me questions about your death. He wanted to know about the gun that was used and when it happened exactly and a host of other things. He had gotten a copy of my report – dad must have given it to him – and he said it didn't make any sense because he didn't believe his mom would kill herself. I just let him talk. He wants someone to blame still and that is still me."

"The thing is, I know you didn't kill yourself. I knew it that night somewhere in my head, but I still ruled it a suicide. After all if it was suicide then I could be to blame. I deserve the blame because it was my fault you were alone. Even if I hadn't fucked up with you, you wouldn't have been alone if I hadn't taken Henry from you. I am sorry Regina, I am so sorry."

She broke down crying and the video turned off.

Present Emma was beginning to feel like her earlier assessment was right. This Emma had gone crazy. Her mistake was thinking this alternate Emma was the future Emma. Seeing these videos now made it clear to her how wrong she was – this wasn't future Emma. That meant future Emma was telling the truth, that the visions she showed Emma were true. She really was married to Regina. They really were in love and had a child.

But even if she accepted that future Emma was not lying, she couldn't reconcile how she could become the Dark One.

None of it made sense. And the answers which she said were in these videos were now answers to questions Emma had never even considered. If alternate Emma was living alone in an apartment in Boston, what happened to the child she was having with Killian? Emma knew that there was no way she would ever give up another child which meant there was only one more alternative and it wasn't one she wanted to face. She wasn't the one who was pregnant but she was literally watching herself and that scared her suddenly.

She didn't want this future.

She needed a break so she made a few phone calls to make sure shifts were covered at work and then she went upstairs to check on Regina. She wasn't surprised to see Henry sitting up in bed reading a book next to a still sleeping Regina.

"She's been asleep the whole time?" Emma asked.

"Yes, but she moved around a little bit so I took that as a good sign."

"Good," she said. "Take a break, go eat, I will watch her for a bit."

He got off the bed quick enough that Emma figured he was pretty hungry. She took his seat on the bed. She sat there looking around the room much like she did the night before.

"You know you can wake up at anytime. Seriously, it would not be inconvenient to me at all," Emma said to her before pausing.

"I've been using your laptop downstairs to watch these videos and you can't be angry at me for using your computer because well your wife gave me the password to get in it. Snow White. Clever."

She sighed wishing Regina would wake up even if it meant getting yelled at by her for using her computer or even being in her room.

"These videos … they're um … disturbing. You see they are from me, well alternate future me. Could this get any more Star Trekkie or maybe this is more like Doctor Who, I'm not sure. Anyway, she made mistakes, horrible mistakes and you got hurt. She said she was sorry and I believe her. I think maybe she took Henry from you because she wanted to hurt you but she never really thought about what that meant. I can understand because I don't always think things through either."

"That's the really scary part about this – that I can relate to her. I can see parts of me in her. Yet I can't relate to the other Emma, the one who is married to you. From the moment she got here there has been something about her that has rubbed me the wrong way. Isn't that messed up – that I relate better to an Emma that I am fairly certain is on the downward spiral of insanity? Sometimes in this video she's talking to you and you are dead."

"But I think I figured it out – what my problem is with future Emma and it was actually remembering being in the alternate Emma's mind that made me think of it. You see in that timeline you and her have sex, of course after an argument or during it; the point is as that Emma was yelling at you she was trying to get you to see that she didn't want to be in this role where she felt like she had to fulfill some destiny of being the Savior. She wanted to make her own choices, be free and that struck a chord with you too because that is how you felt. You didn't want to be seen as the Evil Queen, you just wanted to be you. And I totally get it from your standpoint and hers, and that is what got me thinking. My problem with the future Emma is that she came back here and started telling me about this role I had to fulfill – being your wife. I don't like being told I have to be something. I too want to be free to make my own choices. I hope that makes sense to you."

"It does."

Emma watched as Regina opened her eyes. "Um, how long have you been awake?"

"I think since the Doctor Who reference," she said sitting up. "It seemed rude to interrupt."

"How are you feeling?"

"In need of a shower," she said getting out of bed.

"Really. You need a shower and that's it? Regina do you remember what happened?"

"I do," she said calmly. "I died."

"Yes, well sort of,"

"Where is the other Emma?"

"I don't know. She said she needed to go lie down and rest or something. I think the magic she did tired her out."

"I need to speak to her," Regina said. "Where is my phone?"

"Whoa," Emma said also standing up. "I think we need to talk about whatever the hell is going on first."

"Which is why I need to talk to her. I assume she knows whatever is that happened to me after I got shot. I was still alive there on the floor of Henry's bedroom but I wasn't alone in the room."

"I know, which is why you shouldn't have taken that potion. You miscalculated and you were still in your future self when it happened. What if you hadn't woken up? What is she hadn't been here to help you? And then whatever that was that happened in here before you passed out. What was that anyway?"

"I don't know, some sort of repercussion of what happened in the future, or maybe a side effect of whatever your future self did. I don't know which is why I need to speak to her. She must have some idea of what is going on."

"Do you know who shot you?" Emma asked suddenly.

"She didn't tell you?"

Emma shook her head no, "she said I wouldn't believe her. But if you tell me I would believe you."

"Why would you believe me over her?"

"Because number one, I can tell when you are lying usually, and number two, I can't tell when she is. I can't because we human beings tell ourselves lies all the time. It's easy and sometimes those lies become the truth, at least to ourselves. I don't know if she is lying because whether I want to accept it or not, she is me."

Regina considered it.

"It was Hook. He shot me. But I don't know what happened afterward, all I know is it hurt unlike anything I have ever felt before and I would do anything not to feel it again."

Emma turned away from her.

"I'm sorry," Regina said after a moment. "You asked me for the truth."

Emma looked back at her. "I believe you."

"You do?"

"I told you, I know when you are lying."

"Still, I am sorry. I don't even know why he did it. That is why I need to talk to you, other you."

"I might know why he did it."

"Why?"

"She um said that they and I am guessing they are Gold and Killian, that they ripped out your soul."

Regina sat back down on the bed.

"She's sure about that?"

"She seemed sure. Do you know why they would to that?"

Regina shrugged, "It's hard to say. The soul is a powerful thing and for someone like me, and even you, it's even more so because it's essentially the embodiment of our magic. If Gold did this, he must have had a specific purpose in mind, something he needed a lot of magic to do. We're talking on par with, well with the curse I cast. It's not light magic, it's the darkest of the dark."

Emma closed her eyes a moment. She didn't want to ask but she knew she had to.

"Could it be used to create life, like a baby?"

Regina gave her a curious look. "Not on its own no, but yes with other components it could be used in that fashion although it would be a corrupted life. Gold would know this so I doubt he would waste it in such a way."

"How so?"

"Astral projection only works if you are moving forward or backward to yourself. This is because you are for lack of a better way to describe it, hitch hiking your soul in another vessel. The only reason it works is because your soul recognizes its own soul in that vessel and so can merge with it temporarily. Now if Gold did indeed take my soul which I am willing to believe having now experienced it, he could create a life, but that life would never be a whole self-contained life as you would think of your own life because it would have a remnant of that person's soul that could never really be erased. A better example and forgive me for mentioning this, but what happened with Neal when he absorbed his father. You saw what it did to him. Two souls can't inhabit the same body something has to give. Why would you think he would use it in that way? Did your future self tell you something about this?"

"I think there is something you need to watch," Emma said.

….

Emma stood behind Regina while she watched the videos. The brunette had insisted on checking on Henry first and assuring him that she was fine. She then asked Emma to take Henry to her parents for the rest of the day and night, which he argued against but Regina cut that argument short, and Emma ended up doing it. While she was gone Regina showered and changed clothes by the time Emma returned.

She was just now watching the last video that Emma had watched.

"And you haven't watched the rest of them yet."

"No. To be honest I don't know that I want to either. Just tell me the truth, do you think Gold took your soul to create a baby for Belle?"

"No, I don't see it. There are other ways he could try before doing something that desperate. Like I said he knows if he did he would be risking creating something that would never fully be its own life and given how he feels about me I don't think he would want even a bit of my soul hanging out in his child. The other issue is that a soul isn't something you can put in a cardboard box or in the freezer to keep fresh. It would have to be used quickly unless Gold has discovered some way to store a soul for safe keeping. The pregnancies happened too far from my death. I would guess the shelf life on one is no more than a couple of days. But that's not what you are really wanting to know, is it? You are wanting to know how you got pregnant."

Regina turned in her chair to look at her.

"Now that you have explained it to me about your soul being in the person, then doesn't it make sense that maybe my theory is right. Come on, she believes she has been sensing you being around her. Maybe she is because you are."

"I admit that did seem odd, but you said yourself you thought she was going crazy."

"You don't understand. I wouldn't just get pregnant. I am careful. I have been careful since the day I gave Henry up. I didn't want any more children because I didn't want to have to face being put in a position ever again where I might give a child up. Even now, my life is as secure as it has ever been, and I still wouldn't think having a child right now would be a good idea. Something had to happen, I know it."

"Then we should continue watching the videos and hope the answer lies within them."

"I don't know that I am ready to do that yet. We already know her life ends up in a shit hole so I am not figuring this has a happy ending."

"Fair enough, but obviously felt like you and Belle were made pregnant through the use of my soul. You didn't jump to that conclusion by watching these videos, so why don't you tell me why you believe that."

"I asked future me why anyone would take a soul and she said like you that it's powerful and yours would be powerful because of your magic. She said it's life."

"She's not incorrect, but can you tell me exactly what she said?"

Emma thought about it a moment. "She said it was life and then some stuff about the question of where a soul goes when it dies and that if it's energy can it be shaped to be something different."

Regina stood up and this time she was the one with the thoughtful look on her face while pacing.

"Regina," Emma said after the other woman simply stopped. Regina looked at her.

"I think I can safety assure you that my soul isn't hitchhiking in the form of a baby in the future," she said.

"Then where is it?"

"I think we should keep watching the videos."

"Why? What do you know?"

"I might not know anything."

"Your facial expression isn't exactly saying that. In fact you look like you might know exactly what is going on."

"The videos," Regina said. "We need to keep watching them."

She moved back to the computer but Emma grabbed her wrist before she could hit play. "What do you know?"

"I don't know anything, but I suspect something, something I won't know for sure without more information."

"Tell me what you suspect."

"You aren't going to like it."

"I don't like any of this so far."

"I think Gold took my soul to use as a weapon of sorts. The reason I want to watch the videos is not because of your pregnancy or what happens with you and Hook. I want to watch you, or rather you in them. You said before that when you were in your future self's mind that you thought she went crazy quickly after my death. These videos would seem to suggest she is in some sort of decline, but I don't think that is out of some sense of grief."

Emma's eyes got a little wide. "You said two souls can't inhabit the same body."

"They can't, something has to give, so the question is which one of us did because I suspect her mental decline is because she's not alone. My soul is in her. She is sensing me because I am actually there."

"But why would he do that?"

"Because you are the product of true love, the Savior. You are quite possibly the only person that could defeat Gold. He did this to destroy you from the inside."

"Say you are right, how does Killian fit into this? He would never …"

"I don't know what his role in this is. You know how Gold is, chances are the pirate never knew what he was agreeing to do."


End file.
